695A.0024/10–1053
The Secretary of State to the President of the Republic of Korea (Rhee)1
My Dear Mr. President: I want you to know that I have been closely following developments in connection with the prisoners now in custody of the Repatriation Commission and fully share your concern that they be assured freedom of choice in their decision with respect to repatriation without being subjected to intimidation or coercion. I also want you to know that in addition to the communications from the United Nations Command to the Repatriation Commission of which you are aware,2 the United States Government has formally called the attention of the five member governments to those developments with respect to the Repatriation Commission which gave cause for concern. We intend to continue closely to watch developments and believe that the difficult problems to be faced in connection with the operations of the Commission can be resolved by non-violent means.
[Page 1529]As you know, President Eisenhower has already expressed his grave concern over such statements as that of the Acting Foreign Minister on October 3 and has indicated the difficulties they pose for the United States. However, I have in the last few days been particularly disturbed by rumors of possible attempts at mass breakout by the prisoners. The lives that might be lost in such an attempt, not to mention the additional serious consequences, seem to me to make it essential that the prisoners be given no encouragement to undertake such an attempt nor reason to believe that it would be condoned by anyone on our side.
I must also tell you, Mr. President, that the Government of India has formally called the attention of the United States Government to the obligation undertaken by the United Nations Command under the terms of the Armistice Agreement. As you will recall, paragraph 6 of that Agreement states that “… the detaining side shall have the responsibility for maintaining and ensuring security and order in the areas around the locations where the prisoners of war are in custody and for preventing and restraining any armed forces (including irregular armed forces) in that area under its control from any acts of disturbance and intrusion against the locations where the prisoners of war are in custody.” We have assured the Government of India we intend to meet fully our commitments under the Armistice Agreement.
It is my sincere hope, Mr. President, that our two nations can continue to cooperate in seeking peaceful solutions to the difficult problems facing us.
Sincerely yours,
- This letter was transmitted to Seoul in telegram 234, Oct. 10, 1953, repeated to Tokyo as telegram 862. It was drafted and cleared by Johnson.↩
- Presumably the reference was to the letter by Clark to the head of the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission, questioning the Commission’s procedures. For a text, see Department of State Bulletin, Oct. 26, 1953, pp. 567–569.↩