308. Memorandum From Colonel Lawrence J. Legere of the White House Staff to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Taylor)0
SUBJECT
- Force Level in Korea
This subject arose at the staff meeting this morning, but is so sensitive that I have decided to treat it separately in this original-only memorandum.
[Page 649]Bundy announced that he had in his hand a “piece of paper from Bob McNamara which has not and never will be officially written.”1 This hot potato apparently indicates Secretary McNamara’s intention to let force levels in Korea (surely Korean and maybe US also, I would say) reach lower levels through the operation of immutable forces over time, without, as Bundy put it, any formally “theological” structure of justification. Bundy stressed strongly (a) the sensitivity of this information and (b) the fact that no one anywhere should try to flush this issue onto the table for decision or even for serious discussion.
Bundy knew that Komer and Hansen would try to say something, and, sure enough, Komer did start to talk about MAP funds and the need for a rationale for lowering them in specific areas, but Bundy shut him off with an abruptness that I have seldom if ever seen Bundy indulge.
Sic transit ratio of the JCS. I would say that this “decision” reflects credit on the JCS because it indicates that no one wants to join logical battle with them.
- Source: National Defense University, Taylor Papers, Chairman’s Staff Group, March to June 1963, T-208-69. Top Secret. Taylor’s initials appear on the source text.↩
- Apparently a companion document, which has not been found, to Document 307.↩