320/10–1450
Memorandum by the Director of the Office of Chinese Affairs (Clubb) to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Rusk)
Subject: British Proposal to Accept Chinese Communists Participation in Actions Respecting Korea, Re Delga 107, October 11, Department Telegram to USUN 392, October 12, 1950
In view particularly of the overtly antipathetic attitude adopted alike by the U.S.S.R. and Communist China respecting UN action in regard to Korea, and in view likewise of Chinese Communist threats still to take action to influence the outcome of the fighting in progress, it would appear basically incongruous and impolitic in existing circumstances to invite the Chinese Communists to participate in the settlement of the question of Korea. In the opinion of CA, the Chinese Communists should be so invited only if and when they adopted a new, more reasonable attitude respecting Asiatic affairs, only when and if, in short, they show evidence of a willingness to contribute to the maintenance of international law and order.
The above observations are predicated upon the assumption that the Chinese Communists will not be seated in the UN at the time when the Commission for Unification and Rehabilitation of Korea goes into action. If the Chinese Communists are in fact then represented, they will naturally occupy the same position as other UN members. Neither China’s geographical propinquity nor the widely advertised violent temper of the Peiping regime alone, however, should be taken as just cause for the Commission to give special consideration to the views of the Peiping regime, whether or not a UN member, inasmuch as that regime has a clear record of support of international lawlessness in connection with the Korean case.
It is granted that the Commission should not be limited by mandate prohibiting it from conferring with any person or any political group or regime.1
- A manuscript note on the source text read: “I agree. L[ivingston] T. M[erchant]”.↩