WAR DEPARTMENT
     HEADQUARTERS OF THE ARMY AIR FORCES 
                        WASHINGTON
 
 
                              January 28, 1942
 
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT:
 
     In reply to your recent inquiry please permit me to
 
advise you that there is no present means of operating heavy
 
bombardment aircraft from Outer Mongolia, viz., east of Urga,
 
and between Urga and the Outer Mongolia-Manchukuo border
 
without the definite cooperation of the Russian Government.
 
     The Chinese Government has had no effective control
 
of Outer Mongolia for the past several years, and no control is
 
attempted by the Chungking Government to any important extent
 
beyond Lanchow in Kansu province; the Gobi Desert north of
 
Kansu forming a fairly effective natural barrier.
 
            For this reason I feel that the plan, which is now
 
in progress, for carrying out an attack upon the Japanese
 
enemy's center of gravity, by making use of facilities for which
 
the Chinese Government can guarantee us a reasonable degree of
 
security on the Eastern Asiatic mainland, is the logical and
 
most effective plan.
                    H.H. Arnold
               Lieutenant General, U.S. A , 
               Chief of the Army Air Forces