53. Letter From the Secretary of State to the Secretary-General of the United Nations (Hammarskjöld)1
My Dear Mr. Secretary General: I have your letter of January 27th.2 It illustrates, I am afraid, the difficulty of you and me trying to deal with these matters on a direct personal basis. We were together for over one and one half hours. Yet you feel the time was inadequate. Perhaps it was, in the sense that it would have taken many hours to have covered the subject in detail. That is why I have to do a measure of delegating to Ambassadors and assistants.
I quite realize that China matters have many aspects, any one of which might perhaps influence, for better or for worse, the fate of the prisoners. However, I thought that the United Nations Assembly mandate was to deal with it as a simple issue, namely—will the Chinese Communist régime comply with the provisions of the Korean Armistice? Other issues were, I thought, not to be tied into this prisoner matter.
You refer to a “possible essential link which exists between the release of the prisoners and the visit of the families”. I do not recall that this thought was communicated by you during our extended conversation. On the contrary, I recall that you and I were somewhat puzzled as to how to reconcile the invitation to the families with a readiness to release the prisoners; for then, the arduous, hazardous and expensive trip would be unnecessary.
In any event, you will have noted that we merely declined to issue passports “for the time being”. That decision was reached in the interest of peace and to avoid affording occasions for what might be further provocations in a sensitive situation.
If you have reason to believe that the visit of the families will, in fact, procure the release of the prisoners, and you feel satisfied that the visits would not lead to provocative incidents, then we would be glad to reconsider the matter.
Won’t you talk these matters over fully and frankly with Ambassador Lodge, who has the complete confidence of the President and myself?
Sincerely yours,
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 611.95B251/1–2155. Top Secret; Eyes Only. Drafted by Dulles. The copy sent to Hammarskjöld was apparently not classified; the classification is typed directly on the source text, a carbon copy.↩
- Document 48.↩