No. 244
Editorial Note
During a meeting of the National Security Council on July 29, during an intelligence briefing by Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles, the following comments relating to China were recorded:
“The Director of Central Intelligence said that when the Russian tanker had been brought into Formosa by the Chinese Nationalists, it had created a tremendous furor in Russian official circles. It was apparently felt that this represented an official U.S. policy of intercepting Soviet shipping. There was a period during which Soviet shipping seemed to have been temporarily withdrawn, apparently while a plan was being worked out. It had seemingly been decided [Page 512] that Soviet shipping would either avoid dangerous areas or be convoyed through them.
“Mr. Dulles said that the attack on the British passenger plane was apparently due to a “trigger-happy” pilot, who thought that the plane was going to attack a Soviet tanker. In the second incident, U.S. planes had just photographed a Polish tanker which was under naval escort. As a result, fighter aircraft were called out, possibly from Hainan or Suchi. This Polish tanker was escorted by Russian vessels. An escorting gunboat sent out the warning, and Communist planes arrived within 25 minutes. The orders to these planes, which were intercepted by us, stated that if the aircraft were friendly they should not be attacked; but if not, they should be attacked at once. The President noted that the Chinese were used to conducting undeclared wars for long periods of time.” (Memorandum of discussion by Robert H. Johnson, Assistant to the NSC Executive Secretary, dated July 30, 1954; Eisenhower Library, Eisenhower papers, Whitman file)