Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part V. B. 2. b.djvu/115



1. On 10 April 1950, the Joint Chiefs of Staff made the following strategic assessment of Southeast Asia, including Indochina:

"4. The mainland states of Southeast Asia also are at present of critical strategic importance to the United States because:


 * . They are the major sources of certain strategic materials required for the completion of United States stock pile projects;


 * . The area is a crossroad of communications;


 * . Southeast Asia is a vital segment in the line of containment of communism stretching from Japan southward and around to the Indian Peninsula. The security of the three major non-Communist base areas in this quarter of the world--Japan, India, and Australia--depends in a large measure on the denial of Southeast Asia to the Communists. If Southeast Asia is lost, these three base areas will tend to be isolated from one another;


 * . The fall of Indochina would undoubtably lead to the fall of the other mainland states of Southeast Asia. Their fall would:


 * (1) RequrieRequire [sic] changing the Philippines and Indonesia from supporting positions in the Asian offshore island chain to front-line bases for the

Rh