Nor was Ball alone in hoping to restrain the move to a larger war. Several midlevel officials shared his basic position, among them James C. Thomson Jr. of the NSC; Thomas L. Hughes, who headed the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the State Department; Allen Whiting, deputy director of the East Asian desk at the State Department; Carl Salans of the Legal Adviser’s Office at the State Department; and the Working Group’s Robert Johnson.
