FE files, lot 55 D 480, “Japanese”
No. 845
Memorandum of Conversation, by the
Acting Director of the Office of Northeast Asian Affairs (McClurkin)
Subject:
- Prime Minister Yoshida’s Suggestion of an Anti-Communist “High Command” in Singapore for Psychological Warfare.
Participants:
- His Excellency Sadao Iguchi, Ambassador of Japan
- Mr. William J. Sebald, Deputy Assistant Secretary, FE
- Mr. Robert J.G. McClurkin, Acting Director, NA
Ambassador Iguchi came in at Mr. Sebald’s request to receive the Department’s comments on the suggestion made by Prime Minister Yoshida to the Secretary that a “High Command” for psychological warfare be set up in Singapore under Malcolm MacDonald, with participation by the United States, the British, French and Japanese.
Mr. Sebald said that we had given very careful consideration to the suggestion and greatly appreciated it as an indication of the Japanese interest in getting together with us to work out ways and means to counter the Communist threat in Asia. Certainly the basic objective of the idea is good, but there is more difficulty when it comes to trying to decide the best method of achieving the objective. [Page 1817] One major problem is that the Manila Pact blankets the same area and also provides for consideration of the problem of internal subversion. Consequently we are afraid that the Prime Minister’s specific proposition would not work because it would cut across the aims and objectives of the Manila Pact. (At this point Mr. Sebald interjected that the February 23 date for the Manila Pact meeting in Bangkok is firm and that it will be formally announced on January 3.)
Mr. Sebald continued that we wonder whether the objective envisioned by Prime Minister Yoshida might not be achieved by giving impetus to our proposal to the Japanese Government of a high-level bilateral consultative body in Tokyo to include the Embassy and the Command on the United States side and appropriate Japanese officials at the Vice Minister or Minister level. Through this means we could assist and amplify each other’s efforts to meet the Communist psychological offensive. However, we do not know what the reaction of the new Japanese Government is to this proposal of ours which is still outstanding.
Ambassador Iguchi said that he believes this to be a very constructive suggestion. He commented that Prime Minister Yoshida had made the same suggestion to Mr. Eden as he had made to Secretary Dulles. About mid-December the Japanese had received a somewhat similar suggestion from the United Kingdom except that the United Kingdom had envisioned a trilateral or quadrilateral consultative body in Tokyo. Ambassador Iguchi himself believed that such an arrangement would be most helpful both for exchange of information and for developing coordinated plans of action.
Mr. Sebald concluded by saying that he thought it might be left to the Japanese Foreign Office to take the initiative in Tokyo in developing this general idea further, and Ambassador Iguchi said that he would so recommend to his Government.