Memorandum from Lieutenant General J. E. Hull to President Harry S. Truman, with Related Material

China WAR DEPARTMENT DECLASSIFIED E.O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and 5(D) or (E) OFFICE OF THE CHIEF OF STAFF OSD letter, May 3, 1972 WASHINGTON, D. C. By NITHC NARS Date 6-24-75 3 September 1945 MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT: SUBJECT: United States Commitment for Equipment of the Chinese Army. In accordance with a request from Commodore Vardaman to Colonel Pasco concerning the alleged U.S. commitment to furnish equipment for 120 Chinese divisions, the following information is submitted. 90 The War Department accepted a plan for equipping and training thirty Chinese divisions in early 1942 and included the equipment in the Army Supply Program. This plan was submitted by General Stilwell in accordance with his directive to strengthen the Chinese Army thru the media of Lend-Lease and training aid. Training of a second group of thirty divisions was approved by the War Department in January 1943. Commitment was not made as to the provision of equipment for these second thirty divisions with the exception that ten per cent thereof was approved for training purposes. At a Joint Chiefs of Staff Meeting at the Cairo Conference (November 1943), General Stilwell reported that Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek had a plan which called for the equipping of three groups of thirty divisions each or a total of ninety divisions. The following extract from the minutes of the 130th JCS Meeting at the above conference is the only indication the War Department has of a commitment, if any, President Roosevelt made to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek: GENERAL MARSHALL said the President had already been spoken to about the arming of the third group of Chinese divisions. The President had postponed any definite commitment in this connection although he had made it clear that the United States intends eventually to provide the equipment for this group. Therefore there was no question that in the end the United States will arm the Chinese group but the question was as to when this could be done. He thought that this provided a possible basis for a statement by the Generalissimo. If the Generalissimo could say that he had been assured by the President that the United States would arm and equip the entire Chinese Army and omit any mention of the specific time at which this would be MATIONAL RECORDS SERVICE