a decision, namely, a blockade, the stepping up of an offensive, and bombing, I imagine you would include in there additional divisions of South Koreans, Chinese Nationalists, can that be done under the current budget, under current mobilization and under current production? General BRADLEY It could not. Your production might be current, it might be done under current production and by that I mean the production facilities, but you would have to start working additional shifts and pay out more money. Senator HUMPHREY. Production and budget-is it not true to say that it would require greatly expanded budget considerations? General BRADLEY. Yes, sir. Senator HUMPHREY. Require more manpower? General BRADLEY. Yes, sir. Senator HUMPHREY. That would mean, in other words, stepping up selective service. General BRADLEY. Unless you are willing to take your troops away from somewhere else, which we hate to see done from a military point of view. GREATER EFFORT WOULD BE REQUIRED OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE Senator HUMPHREY. So if any policy is adopted or agreed upon that would embrace any of the alternatives that you have suggested, there may be others than those you have suggested, then we are faced with greater output and greater sacrifice, and a greater effort on the part of the American people; is that correct? General BRADLEY. Yes, sir, to a certain extent, and those are the things which I think we have to weigh very carefully when we arrive at a decision. When I say "We," I mean the Government, not the military. Senator HUMPHREY. This is not a question directed to you, General, because I do not want you to get into policy matters, but I have always been somewhat amazed as how we would be able to do all of that and still balance the budget and reduce taxes and end the war. I surely would not seek any comment at all from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but how in the world would you go about building up the military strength and supplies of this nation, maintain our current front and still at the same time have lower taxes and a lower budget The CHAIRMAN. We are getting into a political discussion now. Senator HUMPHREY. Obviously AMERICAN PRISONERS OF WAR The CHAIRMAN. I would like to ask one question, General. General BRADLEY. The ones they hold? The CHAIRMAN. Yes. General BRADLEY. They are somewhat scattered. As near as we mow, I don't have them plotted here, I haven't checked on it in 2 or months, and the last time I checked they were scattered pretty nuch in some camps around Pyongyang, here, all the way up this line of communications to just across the Yalu. As I remember, the last time I checked, they had something like 17 camps scattered from here back up to here. The CHAIRMAN. What was their number? General BRADLEY. As I remember, around a1 American prisoners. The CHAIRMAN. What condition are they in? General BRADLEY. We don't know. They have sent us pictures, of course, of some of them, but we don't know how much of that is propaganda. The CHAIRMAN. That is all. Senator Smith? Senator SMITH. I have no questions. The CHAIRMAN. Senator Fulbright? Senator FULBRIGHT. I don't believe I have any more. The CHAIRMAN. Senator Ferguson? Senator FERGUSON. I have asked my questions. BALANCE OF SUBMARINE FORCES Senator MANSFIELD. General, I have two short questions. You mentioned in response to an inquiry if a comparison between Soviet and American forces in the Western Pacific, if such were made, that we had unquestioned superiority. The thing I want to know is, does that apply to submarines? General BRADLEY. Well, no, sir. You pretty much have to consider the naval force as a whole because we would combat those submarines with everything we have, hunter-killer groups, carrier-based planes, shore-based planes, destroyers, destroyer escorts, and subma rines. Senator MANSFIELD. Am I to assume they have a superior submarine force, more than we have? General BRADLEY. They have more than we have. They don't, we think, have the same know-how that our Navy has. Senator MANSFIELD. I see. General BRADLEY. Of course, there is one other thing you would do, go after the submarine bases, that is the best way to knock out submarines and, of course, they cannot operate too long without going back to a certain submarine base or bases and we would have to knock those out early in the game. TRADE WITH CHINA ON AMERICAN SHIPS Senator MANSFIELD. One more question. Do you have any idea how many American ships or American shipowners are flying ships under foreign flags and transporting stuff to Red China? General BRADLEY. How many American ships are flying Senator MANSFIELD. Ships owned by Americans, some of our people have a tendency to register under the flags of, say, Panama or Monaco, or some other country and try to run what I consider is an illegal type of ship running, carrying cargoes of war materials to Red China ports. General BRADLEY. I don't know if we can answer that accurately. There are a lot of those running under the Panamanian flag and 1 Figure not supplied in the transcript. there are some Greek-owned ships under the Panamanian flag, and whether or not any of those Greeks we are talking about are American citizens on the side, I don't know, but a lot of those are running in there under the Panamanian flag. Senator MANSFIELD. Is there any way that the United Nations, as such, could bear down on Panama, Greece, or Monaco, or any other country belonging to the United Nations, I don't necessarily mean Monaco? General BRADLEY. Those are the ones whose flags they run under, that is the truth. However off the record. The CHAIRMAN. Is there anything further? AN INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL VAN FLEET Senator KNOWLAND. Mr. Chairman, I would like to have included in the record the interview of General Van Fleet that appeared in this evening's Star. The CHAIRMAN. So ordered. The CHAIRMAN. If there are no further questions, the meeting will stand adjourned. We thank you, General. With the thoughts we got this morning and the information we have gotten this afternoon, we know that we have a responsible job ahead of us and hope the Good Lord will give us the judgment to make the right moves. [Whereupon, at 5 p.m., the committee adjourned.] 72-194-77-vol. V-10 REPORT BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE (DULLES) (Staff Memorandum)1 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1953 UNITED STATES SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON FAR EASTERN AFFAIRS OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, Present: Senators Smith (N.J.), Chairman, Knowland, George, and Sparkman. Not members of subcommittee but attended because of special interest in Secretary Dulles' report: Senators Taft, Langer, and Fulbright. Secretary of State [John Foster] Dulles; Assistant Secretary for the Far East [John Moore] Allison; Senate Liaison Officer Horace Smith. Messrs. Wilcox, Kalijarvi, and Holt, Foreign Relations Committee staff members. In response to Secretary Dulles' question concerning press reports of consultative subcommittee meetings, Senator Smith expressed the opinion that such meetings should be entirely off the record. The Secretary went on to say that he wanted to be clear on that, for what he discussed with the subcommittee would, in large part, be governed by whether or not his comments were given to the press. Senator Sparkman felt that it was bad psychology to leak information to the press because of the chain of public opinion set off in that manner. Senator Knowland's view was that no announcement of scheduled meetings of this kind should be given to the press and thus arouse speculation as to the subject matter. Senator Smith read aloud a short prepared statement, noncommittal in comment, which was acceptable to all for release to the press. Senator Smith opened the meeting by stating that President Eisenhower's reference to the Far East in his state of the Union address had raised a number of questions in the minds of a good many people about our policy in Asia, and for that reason he felt it desirable to meet with the Secretary and other members of the subcommittee to discuss in a general way what the administration has in mind. The Secretary began by saying that the basic purpose of the administration is to try and end the fighting in Asia, not only in Korea but in Indo-China as well. He stated that the situation in Indo-China is even more dangerous in its global aspects than is the fighting in 1 In general, verbatim transcripts are not kept of meetings of the consultative subcommittees. |