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OCR Page 1 of 3562
to
325-a
November 21, 1950
At a meeting last night in the Secretary's office, he discussed
in some detail the current situation in Korea and analyzed the
problem along the following lines. He said there were four parts
of this analysis:
(1) We should see whether General MacArthur has been told
very clearly what to do and whether this is within his capabilities.
(2) We should examine the effect of various courses on
the probability of bringing on general hostilities and war.
(3) What is the area of political adjustment and what are
the pluses and minuses with regard to them.
(4) What is the effect of the general military posture of the
United States and does this require change in policies.
With regard to (1) above, the Secretary said there was a
possibility of some confusion in General MacArthur's mind because
he has a straight military directive from the Joint Chiefs of Staff
and also has general orders sent from the United Nations. On a
straight military basis, he was told to pursue the enemy forces
north of the 38th and destroy them as a military force. If the
Chinese appeared, he was to continue the mission until it was
evident he could not succeed. The Secretary felt that no one should
change this part of the directive until General MacArthur had had a
chance to "probe" the situation. The Secretary said that the civil
affairs directive may have affected General MacArthur's interpretation
of the military directive. He referred particularly to that portion on
occupation. He said that the civil affairs directive does confuse
and does not take into consideration the contingency of the Chinese
communists coming in, as does the military directive. The Secretary
said we must talk to the Joint Chiefs of Staff about this and clear up
any misunderstanding, if one exists. We must point out that we are
not interested in "real estate" but in an army.
DECLASSIFTED
E. O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and 5(D) DE
TOP SLUND
3-22-2777
Depr. of State letter,
PROJECT NO NARS 76-17 Date 3-24-77
By NLT He
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