HEADQUARTERS, 14TH U. S. AIR FORCE 
                Office of the Commanding General
 
                                             26 January, 1944.
 
 
The President,
The White House,
WASHINGTON, D. C.
 
Dear Mr. President:
 
                     Hitherto, in my occasional reports to you, I have avoided raising basic issues of
military policy. After most serious thought, however, I have concluded it is now my duty to do so.
I can see no other course open; since I am convinced the war will be needlessly prolonged by
neglect of our opportunity to attack Japan in the flank from China; and since I am certain the
opportunity will, in fact, be neglected unless you intervene.
 
              The matter is pressing. It is now urgent to prepare for the day when Germauy will be
beaten, and you can turn the whole strength of the United Nations against Japan. As matters
stand, your strength will then be far greater than the enemy's, but you will be unable to bring more
than a little of your strength to bear. Limitations of naval bases, air bases, ports and supply
facilities will prevent you from deploying your full forces, at least until the Japanese have been
driven from their positions in South-east Asia and the South-west Pacific. These positions are
now strongly fortified and stubbornly held. They can be rapidly weakened, however, by an
intelligently conceived attack on the Japanese flank from the China base. By expediting the fall of
Japan's outerdefenses, such an attack will directly advance the time when the United Nations' full
forces  may be deployed for the final assault. But preparation for such an attack must begin almost
immediately; if it is to bear fruit when it should, in the next twelve months.
 
          What ought to be done is not difficult.
 
                         1. Our air forces should be augmented to establish air supremacy throughout East
China.
 
                       2. From the base thus secured, Japanese. shipping on the Chinese inland
waterways, in the Chinese and Formosan ports and in the sea lane along the China coast, should
be intensively attacked by medium bombers. At the sane time, the attack on shipping should be
carried out over the China Sea to the coast of the Philippines, by heavy bombers with Radar and
other special equipment for sea search. The sea search should cover both the vital sea routes,
between Japan and Shanghai, between Japan and her new Empire in the South.
 
                 3. Meanwhile, in close coordination with the attacks on Japanese air power and
shipping, heavy bombers of the B-29 type should
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