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Editorial Note on the Public Statement about the China Mission

November 20-December 18, 1946

Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal had been incensed of late by criticisms of the navy in particular and U.S. military policies in general by liberal former Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes (e.g., “The Navy at Its Worst,” Collier’s 118[August 31, 1946]: 22-23, 67). Viewing Ickes’s ideas and statements as exemplifying widespread misconceptions in the United States about policy toward China, Forrestal called Ickes’s writings to the attention of Under Secretary of State Dean Acheson. At a November 20 meeting, Acheson told the secretaries of war and navy that it would be a good idea to clarify Truman administration policy and that the State Department was drafting a statement reviewing developments in China since the president’s December 15, 1945, public statement at the start of Marshall’s mediation mission. (Carter to Marshall, Radio No. WAR-86395, November 26, 1946, NA/RG 59 [Lot Files, Marshall Mission, War Department, Recall and Appointment]; J.H.C. [Colonel J. Hart Caughey] Memorandum for General Marshall, November 29, 1946, NA/RG 59 [Lot Files, Marshall Mission, War Department, Originals].)

Marshall told Acheson on December 8 that he supported “issuance of a r