611.93/4–1152: Telegram

No. 22
The Secretary of State to the Embassy in India 1

top secret
priority

2399. For Ambassador Bowles. After careful consideration urtels 3690, April 9 and 3733, April 11, I would appreciate your handing copies of the following text from me to Bajpai and to Madame Pandit, if she is still in New Delhi. If Madame Pandit has already departed, you should, at your discretion, request Bajpai to forward my letter to her.

(Begin verbatim text) “Ambassador Bowles has informed me of your plans for a mission to China. We are all deeply aware that your mission comes at a most significant time. Much of the wellbeing and security of peoples depend on the question whether the present difficulties are to be handled with wisdom and insight and with a sense of responsibility or with a narrow and rigid regard of the special interests involved.

“You are singularly well-equipped to understand the sources of the present tensions and their dangers, because you have a profound understanding of the Orient combined with a direct and personal knowledge of the attitudes and problems of Western nations, and notably of my country.

“I wish by this letter simply to underscore what Ambassador Bowles has on frequent occasions said to the highest officials of your Government. Our paramount purpose in the present situation is to help insofar as we can to bring the world through its difficulties without a renewal of the tragedy of war. You understand, I am sure, that our devotion to peace is a devotion to a relationship in which the nations act toward each other on the basis of responsibility and with a decent respect for the opinions of mankind. The United States has no territorial designs against any other nation. The United States has no desire to dominate the internal arrangements of any other nation. At the same time, this Government feels compelled to interpose, by force if necessary, in situations where nations use force in derogation of the rights and independence of other nations. The resort to aggression as the arbiter of differences between nations is to us intolerable. But when the policy of aggression has been abandoned, we have no desire to continue the strife or to harbor grudges.

“I should like to take this occasion to send you my sincere wishes for a pleasant and constructive trip.”

Acheson
  1. Drafted by Frederick E. Nolting, Special Assistant to the Deputy Under Secretary, and personally signed and approved by Secretary Acheson.