Office of the Historian

795.00/10–950

Memorandum by the Ambassador at Large (Jessup) to the Secretary of State 1

top secret
[Washington,] October 9, 1950.

Subject: Proposed Meeting with General MacArthur

In thinking over since lunchtime the plan for a meeting between the President and General MacArthur, I incline more and more to the [Page 916] view that such a meeting would be interpreted to foreshadow some major new American move in the Far East.

If it is true, as I believe it is, that both the Chinese Communists and the Russians really believe that we are intent upon maintaining a foothold in Korea, they will interpret this meeting as bearing upon our plans to that effect. I think it is reasonable to assume that the Chinese Communists fear that we are mobilizing forces in North Korea to invade Manchuria or to engage the Chinese armies there while Chiang Kai-shek makes a landing on the mainland to the south. If the proposed conference closely followed or closely preceded another amphibious landing, the fears and suspicions would be heightened. The Indians and probably a number of others would no doubt share these fears.

I do not suggest that the foregoing possibility should cause an abandonment of the project, but I think the President ought to be aware of the possible interpretations and repercussions of such a meeting. I suggest that the possible bad effects of such a dramatic meeting might be avoided through some very carefully prepared statement issued by the President in advance as well as by what he said in his California speech on his return.2 An advance statement might emphasize again our desire to restore peace and security in the area, to localize the conflict, and to terminate the mission of our troops in Korea as soon as possible. It would be important to telegraph such a statement to various of our Missions in advance.3

Philip C. Jessup
  1. This memorandum was routed through the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Rusk).↩
  2. For the text of President Truman’s address in San Francisco on October 17 following his meeting with General MacArthur on Wake Island, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Harry 8. Truman, 1950, p. 673.↩
  3. President Truman’s statement on his forthcoming meeting with General MacArthur was issued on October 10; text ibid., p. 643.↩