795.00/9–2651: Telegram
The Joint Chiefs of Staff to the Commander in Chief, Far East (Ridgway)1
operational immediate
JCS–82438. From JCS. Reur reply CX 51655 to telecon DA TT 5193.
1. Your part 1 is accepted; your recommendation part 3, paras 1a and 1b are approved; and your proposed dispatch to Communists to submit to them proposals to meet vicinity Songhyon-Ni is approved subj to modification opening phrases to read “since your liaison officers have stated they are not authorized to discuss or arrange satisfactory conditions for resumption of armistice talks”. Although this course of action will make it still more difficult to return to Kaesong, if Communists insist on Kaesong you will not make this issue a final breaking point nor abrogate the neutrality of Kaesong without further reference to Washington.2
2. Action on your other recommended courses of action will be sent you soonest.
- Mr. Merchant, in a memorandum for the files dated September 26, indicated that Mr. Acheson approved the text of this message before it was transmitted. No evidence has been found to indicate that President Truman’s approval was sought. (795.00/9–2651)↩
- Mr. Merchant subsequently asked Messrs. Hickerson and Wainhouse about the need to brief the “seventeen ambassadors” concerning the authorization given to General Ridgway to offer an alternative location for the talks. Mr. Merchant informed them of Mr. Rusk’s first reaction in favor of such a briefing, but both Hickerson and Wainhouse felt strongly that calling a special briefing session would only unduly excite the ambassadors. (Memorandum for the files by Merchant; 795.00/9–2651)↩