Executive Secretariat Files
Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Webb) to the Executive Secretary of the National Security Council (Souers)
Subject: Study of Chennault Plan by Joint Chiefs of Staff.
In connection with the survey of Far Eastern policy which is now being carried on in the Department of State, it will be necessary to reexamine and to estimate the feasibility and effectiveness of further United States military assistance to non-Communist China. As you know, General Chennault has presented in testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee8 and in the public press a detailed plan for [Page 541] such assistance which he believes would be both feasible and desirable.
It would be greatly appreciated if the appropriate agencies of the Department of Defense would examine the Chennault Plan with a view to presenting to the National Security Council their judgment as to whether military assistance of the character described by General Chennault could be delivered within sufficient time and in sufficient volume and could be utilized with sufficient effectiveness by the recipients, whether the National Government or provincial authorities, as to be likely to deny to the Communist forces those parts of China still free from their control. Any comments by the Joint Chiefs of Staff concerning the military means which they consider would be necessary to achieve this objective, regardless of whether or not dealt with in the Chennault Plan, would of course be most helpful.
- Apparently presented in Executive Session; for public bearings, see Mutual Defense Assistance Act of 1949: Hearings before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, 81st Cong., 1st sess. (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1949).↩