Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950, East Asia and the Pacific, Volume VI

120.43/2–4750: Telegram

The Ambassador in Thailand (Stanton) to the Secretary of State

top secret

Bangkok, February 17, 1950—11 a. m.

155. For Rusk from Jessup. Consider conference¹ has been genuinely useful both to participants and to Department. No spectacular novel ideas developed but we did not expect them. Daily telegrams have informed you general nature discussions but wish emphasize several points.

1. Sentiment strongly against building up either India or Japan as a dominant power in the area.

2. Agreed IC, Burma and Siam constitute area of special and rather critical danger.

3. Need for consultation and coordination with British on both political and economic levels necessary.

4. In most respects subcontinent so different from rest of area as to make single grouping undesirable.

5. Problem of wise selection of personnel, for example on Point Four survey or operations, highly important. All agreed special missions should be confined to small number.

6. Very strong support for high level US declaration of policy by Secretary, President, in Congressional Joint Resolution or otherwise. Content such declaration not fully agreed. All agreed highly desirable Secretary call in Ambassadors all countries other than India, Pakistan and Ceylon for personal assurance of interest, desire to assist rand hope negotiations on Point Four aid, et cetera, can be successfully concluded. Practically unanimously agreed Secretary’s National Press Club speech did not receive attention or have influence in the area which we had hoped and expected. More formal statement apparently required.

7. Possible further action in UN discussed without definite conclusion.

Conferees agreed on liberal but somewhat restricted communication to governments to which accredited and to colleagues especially in certain cases from Commonwealth and France. Butterworth will talk with British in London and I will also talk with them in London and French in Paris.² [Jessup.]

Stanton

1. Reference is to the Bangkok Conference of United States Chiefs of Mission in the Far East, February 13–15. Ambassador at Large Jessup acted as chairman, while Assistant Secretary Butterworth represented the Department of State. Those present included the following: Ambassador Stanton; John J. Muccio, Ambassador to Korea; Myron M. Cowen, Ambassador to the Philippines; Loy W. Henderson, Ambassador to India; David McK. Key, Minister and Counselor of the Embassy in Burma; Joseph C. Satterthwaite, Ambassador to Ceylon; H. Merle Cochran, Ambassador to Indonesia; Pete Jarman, Ambassador to Australia; Robert M. Scotten, Ambassador to New Zealand; Karl L. Rankin, Consul General at Hong Kong; Edmund A. Gullion, Consul General-designate at Saigon; George M. Abbott, Consul General at Saigon; William R. Langdon,. Consul General at Singapore; William J. Sebald, Acting U.S. Political Adviser in Japan; Hooker A. Doolittle, Chargé d’Affaires to Pakistan; Robert C. Strong, Chargé d’Affaires to the Nationalist Government of China; William M. Gibson, Special Assistant to Ambassador Jessup; Raymond B. Moyer, U.S. Commissioner, Joint Commission on Rural Reconstruction, ECA, China; and Captain Albert Murdaugh, observer for the Department of Defense.

   The conference discussions were based on the following agenda:

   1. Discussion of the Communist problem in the Far East and the USIE program.

   2. Discussion of the general economic problems of the area with relation to United States political objectives.

   3. Discussion of the Japanese situation.

   4. Discussion of regional associations and British Commonwealth attitude toward them.

   5. Discussion of the future balance of power in Asia in terms of Japan versus India.

   For additional reports on conference proceedings, see the following telegrams from Bangkok: telegram 162, February 18, infra; and telegrams 178, 179, and 182, all February 27, p. 27, p. 28, and p. 20, respectively.

2. On February 24, 27, and 28 and March 1, Assistant Secretary Butterworth met informally with Sir Esler Dening, British Assistant Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in London. The following subjects received consideration: China, Indochina, Japan, Malaya, the rehabilitation of Southeast Asia, and Thailand. Despatch No. 1178 from London, February 28, not printed, transmitted notes on discussions on each of the above subjects. (790.00/3–650) Ambassador Jessup conducted discussions with representatives of the Foreign Office in London on March 11; for the memorandum of that conversation, see p. 46. For documentation on Jessup’s meetings with French officials in Paris on March 13 and 14, see pp. 690 ff.