Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, G. Bernard Noble, and William J. McWilliams

m. astigapram 5134 DEPARTMENT OF STATE 856 204 Memorandum of Conversation DATE: July 17, 1951 SUBJECT: Research Interests of Mr. Herbert Feis the Secretary Acheson CERT ARCHIVES AND PARTICIPANTS: s/s - Mr. McWilliams the RE - Mr. Noble COPY COPIES TO: s/s - Mr. McWilliams PA - Mr. Russell epo -1493 Mr. Acheson called me in to discuss the research interests of Mr. Herbert Feis. Mr. McWilliams also participated. The Secretary said that Mr. Feis had shifted the direction of his interests for the time being and now wished to do some research in the Far Eastern field. In particular, Mr. Feis desired to work first on the China area with a view to exploring the major critical periods during the decade of the 40's and examining all the available facts relating to them in order to determine as far as possible what alternative lines of policies there might have been and which of these, if any, might have led to more satisfactory consequences. Mr. Feis has in mind exploring, for example (a) the Stillwell period and the policy involvements with Chiang Kai-shek, (b) the 1945 period which was a time of considerable flux, and (c) the 1948 situation, when important policy decisions were made. The idea in the study as a whole is to make a searching inquiry into the policies followed during these critical periods and to test their validity in the light of all the available facts. The Secretary said that Mr. Feis is also interested in studying the decisions made with regard to Korea during the recent past, but the Secretary added that he felt that the China project and the Korea study were separable and should perhaps be separately undertaken. The Secretary DECLASSIFIED E.0. 10501