740.00119 Control (Korea)/1–2546: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Political Adviser in Korea (Benninghoff)
us urgent
12. For your information and transmission to General Hodge Dept has requested Joint Chiefs of Staff to concur in Dept’s views set forth in this message and so to notify General MacArthur and General Hodge.35
“Dept feels that while one might reasonably interpret paragraph 4 of the Moscow Communiqué as outlined in War Tfgbi 153 and while it would obviously be desirable if we could get the Russians to place a similar interpretation on the paragraph, it is obvious that we can not expect them to accept our interpretation in its entirety. We appreciate the difficulties which face you in endeavoring to bring about extensive unification in economic administrative matters and would have been pleased if you could have obtained acceptance of your proposed agenda. However, we feel that agreement on matters of substance you have reached constitute an important step forward and are of significance in furnishing the basis for further discussions looking to agreement on a broader scale. We feel, therefore, that you should urge continuation of the Conference in order to obtain if possible agreement on some of the other important items on your agenda. We feel further that the American representative might very well urge early action in conformity with the spirit and letter of paragraph 4 of the communiqué for implementation by present agreement of ‘permanent coordination’ rather than adopt the vague Soviet proposal for ‘measures for future coordination’. You are authorized in your discretion to inform the Soviet representative that your instructions are substantially as above.
If nothing definitive is achieved in the foregoing respect, it may become necessary for us to make our position clear in America and Korea by means of a public statement.
It is felt here that, in the face of difficulties, you are handling the situation in a very capable manner.”
- This was done February 9 in telegram War 96565.↩