Office of the Historian

894A.00/7–2749

Memorandum by Mr. Livingston T. Merchant, of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs, to the Chief of the Division of Chinese Affairs (Sprouse)

[Washington,] August 3, 1949.

I return herewith for CA’s files FE’s Secret memorandum of July 27, 1949 to the Secretary regarding an approach to Ambassador Koo and attaching an aide-mémoire on the subject of Taiwan.

Mr. Rusk originally approved this for submission to the Secretary but at a meeting on August 2 with Mr. Kennan, Mr. Rusk, Mr. Butterworth and myself it was finally agreed that it would be unwise to make this démarche in the teeth of the publication of the White Paper.92 I presume the appropriate resting place for the effort is now the files.

L[ivingston] T. M[erchant]
  1. For correspondence regarding publication of the White Paper, see pp. 1365 ff.↩