Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950, Korea, Volume VII

795.00/11–1750

Memorandum of Conversation, by the Ambassador in Korea (Muccio)¹

secret

[Tokyo,] November 17, 1950.

Subject: North Korean Military Action

Participants:	General MacArthur
	Ambassador Muccio

General MacArthur outlined in considerable detail his conclusions as to Chinese Communist motives in North Korea. These reflected mainly Chinese Communists imperialistic aspirations acting independently of the Kremlin. The General went on along lines similar to those recorded by Mr. Sebald in his Memo of November 14.

The General continued that he was sure the Chinese Communists had sent 25,000, and certainly no more that 30,000, soldiers across the border. They could not possibly have got more over with the surreptitiously covert means used. If they had moved in the open, they would have been detected by our Air Forces and our Intelligence.

The General then went on that he had finally received authorization to knock out the Korean end of the bridges across the Yalu; the Air Force was concentrating on doing so and, at the same time, destroying all resources in the narrow stretch between our present positions and the border. Unfortunately, this area will be left a desert.

The General stated that he is mounting an all out offensive² and is certain that the whole area still in the hands of North Koreans and Chinese Communists would be cleared within ten clays. Upon attaining our immediate objectives, he plans to:

1. Release all Korean Prisoners of War with the admonition that if any should resume fighting, they will be subject to treatment as irregular forces. The question of the restoration of civil rights to these paroled Prisoners of War, of course, would be a matter for determination by ROK.

2. He will take all Chinese Prisoners of War to the border, release them, and send them across the line.

3. As a further means of emphasizing to the world the end of the Korean Military Action, he will, at once, order the Eighth Army back to Japan, leaving the stabilization of the situation to the Tenth Corps, UN National Units, and the ROK Forces.

J. J. M[uccio]

1. This memorandum was transmitted to the Department under cover of a letter to Mr. Rusk, not printed, which was received on December 4. The letter indicated that the conversation took place on the evening of November 16.
2. In telegram C–69211, November 18, General MacArthur informed the JCS that the offensive would be launched on November 24; see Appleman, South to the Naktong, North to the Yalu, p. 774.