795.00/1–2854: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the United States Delegation at the Berlin Conference1
Tosec 48. Following text drafted by Ambassador Dean as proposed reply to Communist letter Jan. 262 is forwarded for your information and comment. It will not be dispatched until we receive your approval.
“This will acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated January 26, 1954.
In view of the urgent importance that the politcal conference, envisaged by paragraph 60 of the Armistice Agreement, be convened at as early a date as possible, on behalf of the seventeen governments whom I have the honor to represent at the preliminary talks I am very glad indeed that you wish to resume the preliminary talks promptly.
We naturally are proceeding on the assumption that you would not have addressed your letter of January 26, 1954, directly to me, rather than continuing to present your views through the liaison secretaries now meeting at Panmunjom, unless you were willing to make satisfactory correction or emendations of the remarks, irrelevant to the main theme of our discussion, which led to the indefinite recessing of the preliminary talks on December 12. The spirit, and not the mechanics, is the important thing.
It will afford encouragement to the entire world and particularly to the sorely harassed people of Korea that at long last you are willing to negotiate for the peaceful settlement of the Korean question.
We had already arrived at agreement on a number of procedural matters and I hope that we will be able to resolve the remaining questions left for discussion at an early date.
As to place, assuming we can mutually satisfy ourselves that they possess the necessary secretariat and conference facilities, I would think we could agree very readily on Geneva, Stockholm, Vienna, Beirut, Bandung, Kandy or Colombo.
As to time, I should think we could agree very quickly on the convening of the political conference in approximately 30 to 40 days after the preliminary talks.
As to composition, the participants at the conference should be the Republic of Korea and those of the other nations who contributed troops to the United Nations Command as may desire to attend on our side, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China. Also, as we have repeatedly said, it is quite agreeable to our side that your side should invite the USSR to participate in the discussions as a full participant. If on the other hand the USSR were not to participate in [Page 1740] the conference at all, we believe we could work out satisfactory and appropriate arrangements for the implementation of those agreements arrived at at the conference which concern the neighbors of Korea.
As to other nations at the conference, we are prepared to work out with you appropriate participation by other nations which both sides agree could make a constructive contribution to the conference.
As to voting, substantive decisions of the conference shall be worked out by agreement among the participants directly concerned. We are quite prepared to work out an appropriate method by which each side will know, before final agreement is reached, which nation on the other side will be bound by that particular agreement. The necessary agreement of the parties directly concerned could be provided by incorporating such decisions in the Final Act of the Conference or they could be concluded in some other appropriate manner.
To insure smooth progress of the conference, other decisions taken during the course of the conference should be made by agreement between the two sides.
I am prepared to resume the talks at Panmunjom on short notice after I have received word that the liaison secretaries have worked out the necessary arrangements, in open session if you wish.
We believe there is no real reason now why the preliminary talks should not be resumed promptly. I look forward to hearing from my Deputy, Mr. Young, at an early date that we can resume the talks within a few days after February 1, 1954, and hope that the convening of the political conference may be soon arranged.”