20. Letter From the Ambassador to the Republic of China (Wright) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Bundy)1
Dear Bill: I am sure you are familiar with the “Blue Lion” Committee organized for the purpose of examining Chinese capability plans for operations against the mainland under conditions of a mainland uprising. The Committee was specifically excluded from examining plans for employment of U.S. forces in support except for Taiwan defense.
The Blue Lion Committee work has been largely responsible for getting across to the President and the GRC a factual and realistic evaluation of their chances of success in such operations. This realization has resulted in the relatively quiescent period of propaganda and effort by the GRC in “mainland recovery” plans and for this reason has done a splendid job.
Recently the GRC, entirely on their own initiative, has expanded their planning to operations against Hainan Island. This goes beyond the Blue Lion terms of reference inasmuch as their plans assume:
- 1)
- A U.S. requirement for the operation,
- 2)
- The employment of U.S. air, naval and logistic support forces.
To clarify the situation I called a meeting of the Blue Lion Committee and have attached hereto the minutes of the meeting.2
If you or Defense have any views that we should proceed with requirements planning, please advise and we will act accordingly.
Sincerely,
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, DEF 1 CHINAT. Secret. The source text is stamped, “Mr. Bundy has seen.”↩
- The meeting is recorded in an enclosed March 27 memorandum of conversation. Wright stated at the meeting that the U.S. representatives were not authorized to study and comment on any plans that presupposed the use of U.S. forces except in the defense of Taiwan.↩