795.00/1–1554: Telegram
The Deputy Representative for the Korean Political Conference (Young) to the Department of State
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221. Repeated information Seoul, Tokyo, CINCUNC unnumbered. Regarding possibility of retraction Communists charges, there now seem to be enough indications Communists may resist and then refuse make any change whatsoever in the record of previous meetings.
Soundings made by the Indians in Peiping and Kaesong last week indicate Communists take position there are no obstructions to resumption of the talks. The insistence in their letters of liaison meetings only to agree on the date and their statements in first two liaison meetings follow out their basic positions that there are no impediments to talks.2 We thus start the liaison meetings with a basic divergence. Yet Communists have not, so far, gone completely out on limb against making any changes in the record. There may still be some slight flexibility left.
This may be a difficult period to negotiate with the Chinese Communists any backtracking in public on their charges, no matter how we seek to ease them into it. It is probably a question of face and prestige for them as well as a disinclination to make any concessions to our side at a time when they are wrought up over the “release” of the prisoners which is a major issue of “prestige” for them. The neutrals at Panmunjom consider the release, following the results of explanation, a substantial “psychological defeat” for the Chinese Communists particularly in view of the fact that, as things now stand, the Indians are thwarting Peiping by carrying out an action which Chou En-lai has protested to [Page 1727] Nehru in the strongest possible terms and which directly counters the Communist position on the PW question.
Am certainly not suggesting that we should not stick to our guns at Panmunjom. We must. Martin and I will do our best tactfully to negotiate the question of retraction or expunging the record in such a way the Communists are not confronted with an unacceptable public challenge. We are aware their sensibilities and question on face as well as need keep some flexibility between their position and ours on expunging record.