Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950, East Asia and the Pacific, Volume VI

Editorial Note

From December 4 to December 8, 1950, President Truman and British Prime Minister Clement R. Attlee engaged in conversations at Washington regarding the situation arising from Chinese Communist intervention in Korea. The question of Indochina did not receive extensive consideration. The record of the first meeting, December 4, does attribute the following to Secretary Acheson, however: “If the Communists are successful in Korea, this may so weaken the French in Indochina that they will pull out. He doubted if any one of the President’s advisers would urge him to intervene in that situation.” The record of the first meeting and other documentation on the Truman–Attlee conversations are scheduled for publication in volume III. Additional documentation on the conference is presented in volume VII, pages 1237 ff.