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The interest of the Department of Defense in the legal conclusions summarized above would appear to be far less than that of the State end Justice Departments. So long as the action taken is broad enough in scope, to permit the Department of Defense to carry out the responsibilities which will be assigned to it, there would appear to be no rounds for objecting to the conclusions offered. This study concludes that the wartime power of the President may be exercised in e state of emergency and that the proposed Resolution provides a political solution of the constitutional question which is broad enough to cover a possible extension of hostilities. These are the principal points of concern to the Defense Department and since I agree with these conclusions and also, with the practical conclusion regarding the Red Cross, Prisoner-of-War, and related conventions, it seems to me that there is no reason for this Department to challenge the conclusions of the memorandum.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, I venture to offer two comments on the general problem presented. First, it seems to me that the term "intervention" might just as well be avoided altogether. It now appears prominently throughout the Department of Justice study, but not in the draft resolution. Tho political connotations of the word are, as you know, the subject of much anti-American comment in Central and South America. Moreover, apart from this, as a matter of technical international law the word implies a dictatorial interference in tho affairs of another state. I understand there is no thought of going into Indochina except on tho basis of an invitation on the part of the lawful recognized government. Our action would not, therefore, be "intervention" in the strict sense of the term as used in international law.

I recognize that tho word "intervention" does not now appear in the text of the draft Joint Resolution and it seems to me, for the reasons sot forth above, that it should not appear, either there or in the public declarations of Administration spokesmen.

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