795.00/3–2351
Draft Text of a Proposed Presidential Statement on Korea1
I make the following statement as Chief Executive of the Government requested by the United Nations to exercise the Unified Command in Korea, and after full consultation with United Nations Governments contributing combat forces in support of the United Nations in Korea.
United Nations forces in Korea are engaged in repelling the aggressions committed against the Republic of Korea and against the United Nations.
The aggressors have been driven back with heavy losses to the general vicinity from which the unlawful attack was first launched last June.
[Page 264]There remains the problem of restoring international peace and security in the area in accordance with the terms of the Security Council resolution of June 27, 1950. The spirit and principles of the United Nations Charter require that every effort be made to prevent the spread of hostilities and to avoid the prolongation of the misery and the loss of life.
There is a basis for restoring peace and security in the area which should be acceptable to all nations which sincerely desire peace.
The Unified Command is prepared to enter into arrangements which would conclude the fighting and ensure against its resumption. Such arrangements would open the way for a broader settlement for Korea, including the withdrawal of foreign forces from Korea.
The United Nations has declared the policy of the world community [is] that the people of Korea be permitted to establish a unified, independent and democratic state.
The Korean people are entitled to peace. They are entitled to determine their political and other institutions by their own choice and in response to their own needs.
The Korean people are entitled to the assistance of the world community in repairing the ravages of war—assistance which the United Nations is ready to give and for which it has established the necessary machinery. Its Member nations have already made generous offers of help. What is needed is peace, in which the United Nations can use its resources in the creative tasks of reconstruction.
It is regrettable that those who are opposing the United Nations in Korea have made so little response to the many opportunities which have been and continue to be afforded for a settlement in Korea.
A prompt settlement of the Korean problem would greatly reduce international tension in the Far East and would open the way for the consideration of other problems in that area by the processes of peaceful settlement envisaged in the Charter of the United Nations.
Until satisfactory arrangements for concluding the fighting have been reached, United Nations military action must be continued.
- The text was given to the President by Mr. Acheson who reported on the discussions with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and with the nations involved in the U.N. effort in Korea. The Secretary indicated that a definitive recommendation would be made once consultations with the foreign governments had been completed and suggested that the statement might be made in the following week. The President said that he would study the matter. (795.00/3–2351)↩