Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Korea, Volume XV, Part 2

357.AD/9–1453

The Secretary of State to the Acting British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Salisbury)¹

secret

Washington, September 14, 1953.

The Chinese Communist reaction to the position adopted by the United Nations General Assembly for the Korean Political Conference is about as you expected. We are not surprised, of course, to find Chou En-lai taking the same line Mr. Vishinsky presented in the Assembly.

I believe you indicated previously that the Chinese reply would be preliminary in character and not their final word. Although your Government and mine differed on one of the points at issue, I am sure that you will agree that having made our decision in the Assembly a few weeks ago, we must continue on that path. Surely there can be no question of reconsidering the resolutions adopted on August 28 or of reopening the entire question in the face of Communist threats. The Assembly took this action after hearing the Communist argument from Mr. Vishinsky, and nothing which Chou En-lai has said alters the situation.

In our view the Assembly should stand firm on the action which it took on August 28 and should reject any attempts to reopen the question at this time. If this is done firmly and expeditiously, with your Government and mine, and the other participants in the Korean action, standing together, the Communists may see that further dilatory and diversionary tactics are useless and will get on with the conference. They would then find some way of saving face and respond constructively to the message concerning time and place of the conference which the United States has sent through the Swedish Government.

Our Delegation in New York will be in contact with yours to discuss tactics to achieve our common objective. Since the Assembly’s action took place less than three weeks ago, I believe that we should oppose the inclusion of this question on the agenda.

1. This message was transmitted to London in priority telegram 1381, Sept. 14, and repeated to USUN as telegram 125. It was drafted by Henkin and cleared in draft with Matthews, Johnson, Barnard, and Dulles (by Murphy) and cleared by Sandifer. A similar, although not identical telegram, was sent to Bidault in telegram 941 to Paris, Sept. 14, not printed. (357.AD/9–1453)

   Because of the illnesses of Churchill and Eden, Lord Salisbury was Acting British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.