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10 April 1950

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OP DEFENSE

SUBJECT: Strategic Assessment of Southeast Asia

The Joint Chiefs of Staff have studied your memorandum, dated 10 March 1950, with its enclosures, in which you requested their views regarding:


 * . The strategic importance, from the military point of view, of Southeast Asia;


 * . NSC 64, a report by the Department of State on the position of the United States with respect to Indochina, which is now before the National Security Council for consideration;


 * . The measures that, from the military point of view, might be taken to prevent Communist expansion into Southeast Asia;


 * . The order of magnitude and means of implementation of such measures; and


 * . A French aide-memoire on the subject of aid for Indocnina, dated 16 February 1950.

1. In light of U..S. strategic concepts, the integrity of the offshore island chain from Japan to Indonesia is of critical strategic importance to the United States.

2. 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

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