Memorandum from Secretary of State Dean Acheson

about Not to leane 571 Sept, 16,1952 pecrelary's office. The Secretary, in considering the question of 277-a whether he should advocate strongly to the President that the Mexican proposal, or something like it, should be followed, pointed out the following considerations: Thomas "NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORD® PERVICE* He said the first thing that troubled him was the similarity in the situation with the MacArthur proposals for pursuing the Korean war to the Manchurian border. In that case the preponderance of opinion in Washington in the Military Establishment and State Department had been against doing what MacArthur proposed but it had seemed that the opinion of the Commander in the field and his advisers should be given a very when heavy weight in deciding the matter. If the Commander's views had prevailed and the venture turned out disastrously the present the blame was placed on Washington. In this case the preponderance of military opinion both in the Field and among the JCS in the Defense Department in Washington is against the political advice of the State Department that the further effort should be made to propose a new formula (al though not in a way that would water-down the package proposal) which the Chinese negotiators might be able to accept. Admiral Libby, is of the opinion that there is