123 Briggs, Ellis O.
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Ambassador to Czechoslovakia (Briggs)1
The President received me at 12:00 noon today and immediately asked how I was getting on in Czechoslovakia. I replied that I found the job absorbing, challenging, and at times frustrating. I described what I meant by those terms, emphasizing that Czechoslovakia is governed by a group of tough Moscow-trained Czech communists who play for keeps, and whose primary loyalty is toward the Kremlin rather than Czechoslovakia. The country is being remade in terms of Russian rather than Czechoslovak interests. Moreover, pursuant to this same design, the Embassy in Prague had been exposed to very considerable pressure and to demands against us, based on false charges.
After outlining our various difficulties leading to expulsion of personnel, I observed that in my opinion we had managed “to give as much as we had received”, or at least to give the impression that we were not “taking abuse lying down”—to which the President stated that he was “glad to hear that”.
The President asked what I thought chances were for the development of a resistance movement in Czechoslovakia, and I replied that to my regret I considered them rather small. The Czechs have many fine and admirable qualities and as individuals are capable of acts of great personal valor, but as a nation they appear more inclined to bow their heads before a storm than to oppose by acts of resistance the continuation of a situation which to the vast majority of them must appear unhappy in the extreme. We should not, therefore, count on [Page 573] any strong Czech anti-Communist movement, although in the event of a general upheaval (which many Czechs would apparently welcome) the majority of the people of the country would unquestionably be on the side of the West.
The President showed considerable interest in our reduced Embassy operations and on learning that one of the points which I had desired to discuss in Washington had been the maintenance of our diplomatic mission in Prague, he stated emphatically that in his opinion the Embassy ought to be maintained for as long as it is possible to do so. The President expressed himself forcefully in that connection.
I had an opportunity to express to the President my high opinion of the work being done by the Voice of America, indicating that the contribution which the Mission in Prague is able to make toward the effectiveness of VOA appeared to me to be one of our major functions at the present time.
Before taking leave, I asked the President’s permission to make a statement to the correspondents to the effect that we had discussed developments in U.S.-Czechoslovak relations during the year since the presentation of my credentials, and that I had expressed to the President the belief that notwithstanding certain actions taken by the Czech Government a few months ago, the vast majority of the people of Czechoslovakia maintain, and will continue to maintain, feelings of friendship for the United States and for the American people—feelings which are reciprocated by the citizens of this country. The President authorized me to make a statement to that effect, and when I emerged from his office, where approximately a dozen correspondents were waiting, I did so. In reply to questions, I also informed the correspondents that at the conclusion of nearly two weeks of consultation in Washington I was going to New York for a few days at Lake Success, and that after a week of vacation in Maine would sail early in December to return to my post.
- Ambassador Briggs returned to Washington in early November 1950, for a period of consultation.↩