Office of the Historian

Department of Defense Files: Telegram

The Joint Chiefs of Staff to the Commander in Chief, Far East (MacArthur)

top secret
flash
Washington, November 8, 1950—12:53 p. m.

JCS 96060. From JCS. 1. We have been informed that effect of Chinese Communist participation in Korean war will be discussed by NSC on 9 November and that we will be required to give our views on military situation at that time.1

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2. We feel that introduction of Chinese forces to extent reported by you represents action on part of Chinese Communist Govt and constitutes “entry into North Korea by major … Chinese Communist forces” as used in JCS 92608 [92801].* We believe, therefore, that this new situation indicates your objective as stated in that message “The destruction of the North Korean armed forces” may have to be reexamined.

3. In view of apparent intervention of Chinese Communist Govt as outlined in your dispatches, discussion is certain to occur as to what further political approaches can be made toward solution of this new problem.

4. We would like your views earliest on this subject.

  1. See footnote 4 to the memorandum by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, dated November 9, p. 1121.↩
  2. Corrected to read “JCS 92801” by JCS 96069. [Footnote in the source text. Concerning telegram 92801, September 27, see footnote 2 to the letter from Secretary of Defense Marshall to the President, p. 793.]↩