Evening star., 1950-02-12
Military Chiefs Repori
To Truman on U. 5.
Pacific Defenses

commanders brought President
Truman first-hand report on
defenses in the Pacific at White
House conference yesterday. 1t
is believed to have been closely
tied in with the mounting tension
of the cold war in the Far East.
While no statement was re-
leased, observers were convinced
the extraordinary conference had
far-reaching diplomatic as well
as military significance in view of
the attendance of Undersecretafy
of State James Webb. Defense
Secretary Louis Johnson and the
civilian heads of the Army, Navy
and Air Departments also at
tended.
At least some of the matters
under discussion probably will be
revealed tomorrow at press con-
ference OF Gen. Bradley, chair
man of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Gen. Bradley returned to Wash
ington Friday night after a TO-
day tour of Pacific installations
with the commanders of the
Army, Navy and Air Force.
Unification Story.
Secretary johnson told news
men that the joint chiefs will dis
close "a grand story on unifca-
ton of American defenses in the
Pacific expected to effect savings
of s6,000,000 to $4,000, 900
through consolidation of military
facilities. f. - i
Gen. Bradley, Gen.. J. Lawton
Collins of the Army, Admiral
Forrest P. Sherman and Gen.
Hoyt S. Vandenberg of the Air
Force, spent more than an hour
at the White House. Also present
were Secretary Gordon Gray of
the Army. Undersecretary Dan A.
Kimball of the Navy, Secretary
w. Stuart Symington of the Air
Force and Deputy Secretary
Stephen T. Early of the Defense
Department.
The joint chiefs had visited
Japan. Okinawa, Guam and
Hawaii and presumably had ex-
pored the Far Eastern situation
with Gen. Macarthur in Tokyo.
There were indications from
other quarters that the United
States and Russia are stepping up
their activities in the struggle forf
Asia, the Associated Press re-
ported. These indications in
cluded the following reports:
/. State Department officials
studied reports from Moscow sug-
sesting that the two months con-
ference between Russian and
Chinese Communist leaders may
be about at an end.
Jessup in Bangkok. /
2. President Truman's rowing
ambassador. Philip Jessup, was
preparing in Bangkok, Siam, for
the opening tomorrow of a con-
ference with top American diplo-
mats in the Far East. Mr.. Jessup,
one of the designers of present
American policy in Asia, Is ex-
pected to share Wastington's fu-
ture plans with the ambassadors
and collect from them ideas on
what they think oughtsto be done.
g. American officials were ex-
pecting an appeal shortly from
the newly recognized state of Wet
Nam for American aid. This and
two other French supported gov
ernments in do-China are un-
der the shadow of expanding
Chinese communism.
Actually most of the cold war
planners here seem to feel that
in the present stage of the fight
in the Far East the struggle Is
mainly of an economic and politi-
cal nature with military power
playing an important but, for the
moment, supporting and protec-
tive role. Only yesterday the Ex-
port-Import Bank granted $10oi
million credit to Indonesia, the
newly independent nation whose
enormous natural wealth makes
1t, in terms of the cold war, one
of the great nriZeS of the STRUGGLE /