Management) for SecAF, 18 Jan 51, SecAF files;
Memo, Col Robin B. Pape, Asst to Dir, PPB Staff,
for Chmn, PPB, 4 May 51, sub: Racial Entries on
Enlistment Records, PPB 291.2.]

_Overseas Restrictions_

Another problem involving the Secretary of Defense concerned
restrictions placed on the use of black servicemen in certain foreign
areas. The problem was not new. Making a distinction in cases where
American troops were stationed in a country at the request of the
United States government, the services excluded black troops from
assignment in some Allied countries during and immediately after World
War II.[15-20] The Army, for example, barred the assignment of black
units to China (the Chinese government did not object to assignment of
individual black soldiers up to 15 percent of any unit's strength),
and the Navy removed black messmen from stations in Iceland.[15-21]
Although these restrictions did not improve the racial image of the
services, they were only a minor inconvenience to military officials
since Negroes were for the most part segregated and their placement
could be controlled easily. The armed forces continued to exclude
black servicemen from certain countries into 1949 under what the
Personnel Policy Board called "operating agreements (probably not in
writing)" with the State Department.[15-22] But the situation changed
radically when some of the services started to integrate. Efficient
administration then demanded that black servicemen be interchanged (p. 386)
freely among the various duty stations. Even in the case of the still
segregated Army the exclusion of Negroes from certain commands further
complicated the chronic maldistribution of black soldiers throughout
the service.

[Footnote 15-20: Memo, Secy, Cmte on Negro Policies,
for ASW, 26 Sep 42, sub: Digest of War Department
Policy Pertaining to Negro Military Personnel, ASW
291.2 Negro Troops.]

[Footnote 15-21: Msg, CG, China Theater, to War
Department, 16 Mar 46, G-1 291.2 (1 Jan-31 Mar 46);
Memo Vice CNO for Chief of NavPers, 1 Jul 42, sub:
Colored Personnel on Duty in Iceland--Replacement
of, P-14, GenRecsNav.]

[Footnote 15-22: Memo, Thomas R. Reid for Najeeb
Halaby, Dir