Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, China and Japan, Volume XIV, Part 1

711.5893/7–2352

No. 39
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by Jeffrey C. Kitchen, Special Assistant to the Secretary of State

confidential

[Washington,] July 23, 1952.

Participants:

• Secretary of Defense Lovett
• Mr. Acheson

The Secretary called Mr. Lovett this afternoon regarding the United Press report from Honolulu containing a statement by a spokesman for Admiral Radford describing a show of force by the United States Naval Air Units off the coast of China.¹ The Secretary said he had hoped to get to Lovett before the latter’s press conference, in case this question arose. Mr. Lovett said it had not come up in the conference.

The Secretary asked Mr. Lovett what this was about, and Mr. Lovett said that he did not know. The Secretary said that Radford’s spokesman indicated that 100 jet planes were involved flying from a carrier task force. Mr. Lovett said that the maneuvers were the summer Seventh Fleet exercise which was publicized several weeks ago this is taking place in waters between Formosa, Okinawa and Japan—outside, of course, the territorial waters.

The Secretary asked Mr. Lovett to let him read the ticker story and for Mr. Lovett to think about the reaction in the United Kingdom in the light of the commotion created by the Yalu power station bombings.²

(The Secretary read the ticker to Mr. Lovett)

After the Secretary read the ticker item, he inquired whether that treatment was a wise thing. Mr. Lovett implied that it was sophomoric—just crazy. The Secretary said he thought it would be much more impressive if the maneuvers were carried out and nothing said about it. As it is now, we will have the British and other Allies after us, and probably receive a propaganda protest from the Chinese.

Mr. Lovett said he would get in touch immediately with Admiral Duncan, who is the Acting Chief of Naval Operations. He reiterated that the statement was a ridiculous, silly thing.

Mr. Acheson said that we were expecting some questions from the press as to whether we knew about this, and asked Mr. Lovett what we should say about it. The Secretary said that what we would like to do is to say that this is an ordinary maneuver; but the Navy has gone out of its way to make this difficult.

Mr. Lovett said he would talk with Duncan and have it toned down in case the Defense Department is asked about it. Mr. Lovett said he heard about it only in the corridor, and had not seen the ticker report. He thought it could be stated that the Navy was having the maneuvers and that these would tie in with the defense of Formosa. Mr. Acheson said he thought it would be desirable to say that these are ordinary training maneuvers, and all forces were operating within the President’s directive regarding Formosa and the mission of the Seventh Fleet. If it was put on that basis, some very low pressure talk would be fine.

1. According to the United Press report, a copy of which was attached to the source text, Admiral Radford’s spokesman had stated that on July 22 about 100 U.S. planes had flown “just outside” the 3-mile limit off the Chinese coast in a maneuver, designed to “give the Communists something to think about,” which would show that the Navy could bomb the coastal cities of Amoy, Foochow, and Swatow anytime without draining its forces in Korea.
2. On July 23 and 24, UN Command forces had bombed power installations in North Korea, including one on the Yalu River. For documentation on Korea, see volume xv.