Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Korea, Volume XV, Part 1

Matthews files, lot 53 D 413: Telegram

The Commander in Chief, United Nations Command (Clark) to the Joint Chiefs of Staff ¹

top secret
operational immediate

Tokyo , May 8, 1953—6:11 p.m.

CX 62316. [A.] DA 938429,² [B.] CX 62301,³ [C] CX 62296.⁴

1. My comments on Communists proposal contained in ref B were dispatched prior to rec of ref A. Ref B appears to comply with your rqst for my comments except possibly for:

a. Custodial trps be limited to mil police type Armys. I consider this rqmt to be essential and to be entirely within reason, and one to which the custodial nations could not object. This proviso can be written into the terms of ref for the custodial nation.

b. The ques of what instructions would apply to that part of the proposal which contemplates that nations to which the pris belong shall have freedom and fac to send pers to the places of detention of the PWs. Again, this must be covered by provisions within the terms of ref or [of?] Armistice Agreement. In addition to the limitation on the nr of these pers, as shown in ref C, I consider that the agreed upon “Freedom and fac” should include such items as:

(1) Specific routes over which mvmt to PW installations will be accomplished.

(2) Time of day, and possibly week, during which this mvmt will be effected.

(3) That mvmt to and from PW installations of such pers will be under the control of, and escorted by pers of the side in whose area the travel is being undertaken.

2. Harrison has been instructed to meet Sat⁵ as scheduled and carry out the action indicated in para 15b, ref B. We do not interpret para 3, ref A as restricting Harrison to ques on pnt 6 only. To restrict his questioning to that single pnt may cause the Communists to believe that we are in general agreement on the other pnts or indicate undue interest at this time in that single pnt.⁶ All ques will be couched in general terms designed to indicate that we are seeking further info on their proposal and so designed as to neither indicate acceptance nor rejection or to give any indication as to what question might be.

1. A note on the source text indicated that Under Secretary Smith saw this telegram.
2. Dated May 7, p. 981.
3. Dated May 8, p. 987.
4. Not printed, but see footnote 4, ibid .
5. May 9.
6. In telegram JCS 938446 to Clark, May 8, 1953, the JCS informed Clark that paragraph 3 of telegram DA 938429 was not intended to restrict the UNC to questions on point 6 only; however, they did believe this point constituted the principal issue and therefore should receive primary attention. Subject to that clarification, the JCS advised Clark that the action outlined in paragraph 15b of his telegram CX 62301, p. 992, was approved. (Matthews files, lot 53 D 413)