396.1 GE/6–1654: Telegram
The United States Delegation to the Department of State
Dulte 185. Personal for Secretary from Under Secretary. My personal reactions on final Korean plenary may interest you and supplement our report Secto 451.1 In first place, preparatory missionary work and drafting by our own people here was superbly done. It was like herding a flock of rabbits through a hole in a fence, and there were causes for extreme exasperation, but everyone remained patient and persuasive, and it paid off. We had most unusual degree of cooperation from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand even though their basic views on some important matters differed from ours. It might be worth while if you sent a brief and very personal message to Webb and Pearson expressing appreciation. You can thank Casey personally when in Washington. He is not the world’s most brilliant statesman, but he loyally stepped into the breach at last minute when some loss of control of conference by Eden in Chair and bad blunder by Spaak seemed likely to leave the US alone in declining without further instructions to associate itself with a final resolution which as we saw it would in effect have made the Geneva Conference a self-perpetuating body outside the UN but including Red China.
Until Spaak allowed himself to be baited, the session went very much as planned for most of the more than six hours, and though the final exchanges between Spaak, Pyun, and others on our side furnished the Communists a good deal of amusement and an excellent propaganda line, the real issues on which the Allies are in some disagreement never came to the surface. On the whole it was about as good as could be expected, though not as good as I had hoped from the unusual success we had during the preceding two days in holding the sixteen together on tactics and wording of final declaration.
We have operated under one great disadvantage. The Communists knew, and indeed the whole press knew almost within minutes, everything [Page 390] that transpired in the meetings of the sixteen, and on the last day particularly were cocked and primed and ready for us. Considering this, I am well satisfied.2
- Dated June 16. p. 376.↩
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Dulles sent the following reply in telegram Tedul 209, June 16, 8 p.m., to Geneva:
↩“From Secretary for Under Secretary. Re Dulte 185. I congratulate you on bringing Korean matter to so satisfactory a close. Please also extend my thanks to your associates on our Delegation. I shall, as you suggest, cable to Webb and Pearson and thank Casey when he is here.
“In view of fact that I shall probably have a very strenuous time with possible trips to Brussels and Montevideo during the latter part of this month and the first of July, I am hoping to get away from Saturday to Monday, returning Washington Tuesday morning. I may therefore miss your arrival which I greatly regret but which I hope you will excuse.
“As you have doubtless heard the President will want to have a group of Congressional leaders at the White House after you get back to hear your report. This may be set up for Wednesday morning [June 23].” (396.1 GE/6–1654)