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MILITARY SITUATION IN THE FAR EAST

FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, 1951

COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES AND
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS,
UNITED STATES SENATE,
Washington, D. C.

The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:40 a. m., in room 212, Senate Office Building, Senator Richard B. Russell (chairman, Committee on Armed Services) presiding.

Present: Senator Russell, Connally (chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations), Wiley, Smith Green, Hickenlooper, McMahon, Sparkman, Gillette, Byrd, Bridges, Saltonstall, Johnson of Texas, Knowland, Hunt, Cain, Stennis, Long, and Flanders.

Also present: William H. Darden, chief clerk, Committee on Armed Services, Mark H. Galusha and Verne D. Mudge of the committee staff of the Armed Services Committee; Francis O. Wilcox, chief of staff; Thorsten V. Kalijarvi, staff associate, Committee on Foreign Relations. Chairman RUSSELL. The committee will come to order.

Gentlemen, I called you together this morning to discuss two matters, one of them rather minor, and the other very important.

We have not yet closed the record of these hearings, although we have ceased the taking of oral testimony.

Since the time that we closed the taking of oral testimony, Admiral Badger has written me a letter which somewhat amplifies and explains some of his testimony before the committee, and he has requested that that letter be included in the last volume of the printed record of the hearings.

If there is no objection on the part of any member, why, that will be done.

Chairman CONNALLY. Whose testimony?

Chairman RUSSELL. Admiral Badger.

Chairman CONNALLY. Oh, yes.

(The document referred to will be marked "Appendix HH," and will be found in the appendix to this record.)

Chairman RUSSELL. There are also one or two other matters that came in after the committee had its last meeting. One of them is a statement of Japanese imports and exports from and to Communist China and Hong Kong, January 1950 to February 1951, requested by Senator Sparkman. Without objection, this table will be printed in the record.

(The document referred to will be marked "Appendix II," and will be found in the appendix to this record.)

Chairman RUSSELL. Senator Fulbright has requested in the course of the hearings a statement as to the number of aircraft in the Phil

lipines on December 7, 1941. That material came to the committee after the conclusion of the hearings.

I do not understand why it took them so long to get this because we had a magazine article-I am quite certain that most of the members of the committee received-as to the naval power of the Phillipines at the outbreak of World War II, that had practically the same figures. That will be printed in the record.

(The document referred to will be marked "Appendix JJ," and will be found in the appendix to this record.)

Chairman RUSSELL. Senator Johnson requested on May 28 information as to the estimates of the Chiefs of Staff of the Air Force regarding the minimum number of air groups necessary to protect this Nation. I have a written communication from the Department of the Air Force on that question, and that will be printed in the record.

(The document referred to will be marked "Appendix KK," and will be found in the appendix to this record.)

Chairman RUSSELL. I have here a "Cumulative list of information requested on the record and not previously supplied," prepared by the committee of all of the material requested, and the place where it appears, the page number where it appears in the record, and I think should all be printed at one point, and would be of considerable assistance to anyone studying the record. Unless there is objection that memorandum will be printed in the record.

(The document referred to will be marked "Appendix LL," and will be found in the appendix to this record.)

Chairman RUSSELL. Now, the other question before the committee

Senator SMITH. Mr. Chairman, might I just interrupt a minute. Chairman RUSSELL. Yes, sir.

Senator SMITH. I think I sent you a letter which you acknowledged, requesting that certain exhibits I sent you might be incorporated in the record.

Chairman RUSSELL. I think that has been done, has it not, Mr. Darden?

Mr. DARDEN. Yes.

Chairman RUSSELL. The last volume has not yet come out, and I am not sure about that. I am glad you reminded me of that, and the Chair will check on that.

(The exhibits referred to will be marked "Appendix MM.")

Senator MCMAHON. Mr. Chairman, before you go into the next question, you will recollect that near the end of the hearings I suggested that if we were not to have Mr. Harriman as a witness, that I intended to secure Harriman's statement under oath regarding the Yalta Conference, and particularly with reference to Hurley's testimony, and I have done so, and I shall offer this for incorporation in the record. I have copies here if anybody is interested.

Senator KNOWLAND. I would like to have a copy.

Chairman RUSSELL. Will you distribute the copies?

(The document referred to will be marked "Appendix NN" and will be found in the appendix to this record.)

Senator KNOWLAND. Mr. Chairman, I think there is a statement of General Chennault that has not been included in the record.

Chairman RUSSELL. That is correct.

(The document referred to will be marked "Appendix OO" and will be found in the appendix to this record.)

Senator SALTONSTALL. Mr. Chairman, might I ask the question, all this material that is now going in, I have in mind now particularly the Air Force statement, is it subject to censoring by Admiral Davis? Chairman RUSSELL. It is not classified by the Department that sent it to us, and therefore I did not submit it to Admiral Davis.

The only question that arose was as to whether the matter should be deleted from the record was if it had been classified. None of this has been classified.

I might say that the answer to Senator Johnson's question merely quotes from testimony that was given before the committees that had been printed. There is nothing that I saw classified about it.

Senator SALTONSTALL. I simply wondered for the sake of continuity, and so that everything should have the same treatment, whether it would not be wise, at least, to give Admiral Davis a chance to look over this material.

Chairman RUSSELL. If there is no objection, I will be glad to get Admiral Davis to look at it. In my own view there is nothing that is detrimental.

Senator HICKENLOOPER. We cannot hear this friendly little conversation that is going on over at the other table.

Chairman RUSSELL. Well, I think if all members of the committee would restrain themselves from conversation they probably would be hearing me a little better.

Senator Saltonstall raised a question as to whether or not this matter had been submitted to Admiral Davis. I had stated that none of it was classified, but that it came up from the Department and, therefore, I had not submitted it to Admiral Davis; that we had only submitted to him those documents that were classified. But if there is no objection, I will be glad to let Admiral Davis, if we can reach him and he is disposed to do so, go over this material, but I do not think any of it is likely to be detrimental to the national interest.

Senator HICKENLOOPER. I presume it should not be necessary if it is not classified by the department that sent it out.

Chairman RUSSELL. What was that last?

Senator HICKENLOOPER. I say if the department that sent it over did not classify it, I think we would have no objection. Chairman RUSSELL. That was my view.

Senator SALTONSTALL. The statement of Harriman's is the same thing.

Chairman RUSSELL. It is not in any wise marked "classified."

Of course, General Chennault's statement referred to by Senator Knowland was a statement that he made as an individual. I do not think there is any matter in there that would be detrimental to the national interest, do you, Senator Knowland?

Senator KNOWLAND. I would not think so.

Chairman RUSSELL. I think I sent that Chennault statement down here. Perhaps it is in my file up on my desk.

Mr. MUDGE. We will check on it, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman RUSSELL. Without objection, it will be printed in the record.

Senator HICKENLOOPER. I merely want to suggest, Mr. ChairmanI raise no objection to the printing of either of these statementsexcept I want the record to show clearly that these are statements sort of ex parte. The witnesses are not subject to examination or to any probing of any of the statements that they have made; that is, with reference to the Harriman statement or the Chennault statement, and for whatever value an unprobed statement before the committee and the committee record may have, I presume we can concede that we should have the printing of these matters in the record, but the persons making either of these statements have not been subjected to examination or probing.

Chairman RUSSELL. That is very clear from the record, Senator Hickenlooper. Not only that, but they are not being printed in the record as such, but in the appendix to the record, along with the other documents and newspaper articles, editorials, which were submitted during the course of the bearings.

Senator HICKENLOOPER. I take it that any citizen or any individual or official can publish his own statement outside of this committee if he wants to.

Chairman RUSSELL. There is no question about that.

Senator HICKENLOOPER. Yes.

Chairman RUSSELL. If there is no objection then, those matters will be printed in the record.

Now, gentlemen, the next question is as to whether this committee should undertake to make a detailed report on these hearings. If it is determined to make a report, we should decide as to the scope and nature of the report that the committee will undertake to make.

I do not wish to influence any member of the committee in his thinking on this subject, but it is my own view, formed before the hearings were concluded, that no useful purpose would be served by the committee's undertaking to make a detailed report on these hearings.

In the first place, we have never had any legislation before us. The committee served as a medium of informing the American people of the views of the prime actors in the matters which we had under inquiry.

It went much further than that. When we concluded, we got into questions of a policy that were not related to the removal of General MacArthur.

It is my own judgment that in the long run that will be one of the most beneficial things, one of the most beneficial services, that the committee performed, because we did focus the attention of the American people on policy in the Far East, and I think it served as a means of informing them much better than they had been heretofore on various issues relating to those policies.

I think that the people have about made their own report in this case, and any effort on our part now to issue a report would be an anticlimax to the hearings.

There has never been a hearing held in my time here or in the past history of Congress of which I have any knowledge where the people got so fully and completely and as rapidly or that was read by as many people as were the hearings before this committee; and millions of American people have already made their own report in their own minds as to this entire matter, and nothing that this committee would say would change the opinion of any of those people.

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