694.001/12–2751
Memorandum by the Consultant to the Secretary (Dulles) to the Secretary of State
This supplements my memorandum of December 27, 19511 with reference to Prime Minister Yoshida’s letter to me on his Government’s attitude toward China. Senators Sparkman and Smith do not know that Yoshida has actually written me, and I only learned of it on December 26 and do not yet have the actual text. But the Senators do know from Yoshida himself that Yoshida was prepared to take the position presumably expressed in that letter. It would therefore be extremely awkward, from the standpoint of Senate ratification, if the Executive as a result of the Churchill talks, were to agree to seek to get Yoshida to retreat from the position toward China which he expressed to the two Senators and which no doubt they will report to their colleagues.