Office of the Historian

793.00/11–154

No. 372
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (Cutler)1

top secret
eyes only
[Washington,] November 1, 1954—noon.

Present:

  • The President, Wilson, J. F. Dulles, Anderson, Burgess,2 Cutler, and Goodpaster3
1.
…4
2.
Tachen Islands: The ChinCom attacked last night one of the smaller islands, with 18 aircraft, and killed and wounded a dozen or so of the defending garrison. It is reported that an enemy convoy is being assembled north of a small Tachen Island, 20 thousand yards distant from the largest.

Wilson, Dulles, and Cutler assured the President that as the record now stood, there had not been a decision to use American forces for the defense of the Tachen Islands, that Chiang understood that the US would not defend, and was not obligated to defend any offshore islands, that US forces would fight back if attacked. While there are in the Tachen Islands some radar installations, useful for early warning, Dulles made the point that the Islands were not indispensable.

It was decided to deflect the Wasp, so as to obtain an aerial reconnaissance of the facts, probably to accelerate the meeting of the three carriers in the China Sea to November 4, not to push our forces in too close to the Tachens, on the basis of information derived from the reconnaissance to decide whether to have US surface vessels make a friendly visit (as heretofore), or to take some other course of action.

  1. The source text is headed: “Meeting in the President’s Office.”↩
  2. Carter L. Burgess, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower and Personnel.↩
  3. According to the President’s appointment book, Wilson, Anderson, and Burgess met with the President at 11:30 a.m. for Wilson’s “usual Monday appointment” and were joined at 12:15 p.m. by Dulles, Radford, Carney, and Cutler. (Eisenhower Library, White House Central files, “Daily Appointments, 1953–1961”)↩
  4. Ellipsis in the source text.↩