Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part V. B. 2. b.djvu/78



2 May 1950

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE:


 * Subject: Southeast Asia

1. The Joint Chiefs of Staff have formulated the following comments, from the military point of view, on the Department of State draft position paper entitled "Southeast Asia" (FM D C-2a, dated 25 April 1950).

2. The Joint Chiefs of Staff concur fully in the expressions in the subject paper as to the importance of the area of Southeast Asia to the United States. They concur in general as to the need for British and French action along the lines indicated in the draft position paper. Moreover, the Joint Chiefs of Staff believe that the currently unfavorable situation in Southeast Asia, an area important both to the United States and to the Communist movement, warrants assumption by the United States of a much more forceful and positive position than is expressed or implied in the draft position paper.

3. As stated in the CONCLUSIONS in NSC 68, -- "Our position as the center of power in the free world places a heavy responsibility upon the United States for leadership. We must organize and enlist the energies and resources of the free world in a positive program for peace which will frustrate the Kremlin design for world domination by creating a situation in the free world to which the Kremlin will be compelled to adjust. Without such a cooperative effort, led by the United States, we will have to make gradual withdrawals under pressure until we discover one day that we have sacrificed positions of vital interest."

4. The Joint Chiefs of Staff believe that the United States and the other Western Powers should take immediate and positive steps to achieve the initiative in the present conflict. Further, they consider that success in Southeast Asia might well lead to the gaining of the initiative in the struggle within the Far East.

5. In light of the foregoing and in order to retrieve the losses restating from previous mistakes on thepartthe part [sic] of the British and the French, as well as to preclude such mistakes in the future, the Joint Chiefs of Staff consider it necessary that positive and proper leadership among the Western Powers be assumed by the United States in Southeast Asia matters. They, therefore, recommend that the draft position paper on "Southeast Asia" be revised along the lines of NSC 68 and paragraph 4 above.

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