Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Under Secretary of Defense Robert Lovett, and Dean Rusk

167 for OCUNL DECLASSIFIED NLT808 E. O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and S(D) or (7) D.pt. of State letter, 10-41-73 310 PR By NLT. 12.6.77 HC Copy No. 2 of 4 copies. November 6, 1950 TRUMAN MEMORANDUM OF CONFERENCE copies 304 ALCORDS MATIONAL SERVICE the is BETWEEN Secretary Acheson destroyed Br Under Secretary of Defense Lovett and Mr. Dean Rusk. Shortly after ten o'clock this morning Mr. Robert Lovett came over from the Pentagon with an urgent message from General Strate- meyer. This message reported that the Air Forces had been ordered to take off at one o' clock p.m. EST today on a bombing mission to take out the bridge across the Yalu River from Sinuiju (korea) to Antung (Manchuria) They were to use rradio controlled bombs and would attempt to bomb on the Korean side of the bridge. Mr. Lovett expressed his view that from an operational stand- point he doubted whether the results to be achieved would impor- tantly interrupt traffic and that the danger of bombing the city of Antung and other points on the Manchurian side of the River were very great. Mr. Rusk explained that we had a commitment with the British not to take action which might involve attacks on the Manchurian side of the River without consultation with them. He also said that the British Cabinet was meeting this morning to reconsider their whole attitude toward the Chinese Communist Government and that ill-considered action on our part might have grave conse uences. He also told Mr. Lovett that we had filed General MacArthur's report concerning Chinese intervention with the United Nations Security Council and had asked for an urgent meeting tomorrow or Wednesday at which we were going to present a resolution calling on the Chinese to cease activities in Korea, thus attempting to get UN support for any action which might be necessary in the event of their refusal to accept the UN action. He also mentioned the possibility of Russian involvenent under the Sino-Russian Treaty. After some discussion we all thoroughly agreed that this action should be postponed until the reasons for it were more clearly known. Mr. Lovett telephoned General Marshall, who agreed that the action was unwise unless there was some mass movement across the River, which threatened the security of our troops. Mr. Lovett called Mr. Finletter and instructed him to tell the Joint Chiefs the facts which Mr. Rusk had stated, as set forth above, and to add that he had talked with the Secretary of State, who believed