795.00/12–2250
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Rusk)
Subject: Swedish Effort to Arrange Cease-Fire in Korea
| Participants: | Mr. Erik Boheman—Swedish Ambassador |
| Dean Rusk—Assistant Secretary of State |
I asked the Swedish Ambassador to come to the Department today and told him that, despite what appeared to be a Chinese Communist rejection of a cease-fire, we wished to leave no reasonable course unexplored. It seemed to us that it might be useful if the Swedish Government thought it possible for the Swedish Ambassador at Peiping to make another effort to disclose the basic American viewpoint to the Chinese Communists and to attempt to ascertain just what their real purposes are in the present situation. I thereupon went over with him the attached memorandum, explaining that we had drafted it as a statement which might be made by the Swedish Ambassador for convenience sake.1 Mr. Boheman indicated that he fully appreciated this method of presenting our views.
Upon reading the memorandum Mr. Boheman thought that it was a very important and constructive step and he felt sure that his Government would wish to act immediately. He said that he would let us know of any results.
- The text of the statement was identical with that in the memorandum of December 19 from Ambassador Jessup to Mr. Rusk, p. 1576, except that at the end of the antepenultimate sentence the following words were added after “such talks”: “which would be appropriate for consideration by the parties involved”.↩