310.2/7–1850
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Director of the Office of South Asian Affairs (Mathews)
Subject: Delivery to the Indian Ambassador of a copy of the Secretary’s Reply to Prime Minister Nehru
| Participants: | Mrs. Pandit, Ambassador of India |
| Mr. Kaul, First Secretary, Embassy of India | |
| Mr. McGhee, Assistant Secretary | |
| Mr. Mathews, Director, SOA |
Before handing to the Indian Ambassador a copy of the Secretary’s reply1 to Prime Minister Nehru’s messages of July 13 and 17, Mr. McGhee explained that we had given the most careful consideration to the questions raised by the Prime Minister and that our reply had been discussed with and approved by the President. Mrs. Pandit read the reply and said quite frankly that she was disappointed.
She asked in some agitation how the drift to war could be stopped if steps were not taken to bring the principal world powers together in the Security Council or elsewhere. She said that people everywhere were deeply fearful of the possibility of a new world war; the United States was losing friends all over the world because many people believed that our attitude toward the seating of Chinese Communist representatives in UN organs was contributing to the deterioration in the world situation. Mrs. Pandit said emphatically that she personally and her Government fully realized that the United States was sincere in its approach to the problems of maintaining world peace but she insisted that our policies could be and were widely misinterpreted.
Mr. McGhee stressed that in our view it was necessary to give primary attention to the most pressing problem which was the putting down of aggression where it had occurred, namely in Korea. Our people were just as concerned as people everywhere in the world at the grim possibility of a new global war and were determined to avoid it if at all possible. Unfortunately, the decision which might precipitate in a world war would be made in the Kremlin. It seemed essential to us therefore to make it clear to the Kremlin that aggression would be resisted. With reference to the problem of the seating of Communist China in the UN, Mr. McGhee observed that we considered this a separate issue which should not be allowed to divert the world’s attention from the immediate problem of stopping aggression in Korea. He was aware that our position on this and other matters was being misinterpreted, but he feared that this was the price we had to pay for the role of world leadership which had been thrust upon us.
[Page 419]Mrs. Pandit expressed appreciation of the Department’s cooperation in providing her so promptly with a copy of the Secretary’s reply to the Prime Minister.