Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, Volume III, China, Microfiche Supplement

590. Letter 40 from McConaughy to Johnson¹

Letter No. 40

Washington, April 30, 1956

Dear Alex:

I went to Charlottesville on Friday to make a speech before the Committee on Foreign Relations there. I have just returned and have not yet had much opportunity to digest your reports on the meeting of April 26. There was no meeting on Geneva over the weekend, either with the Secretary or with Judge Phleger. The Secretary leaves on Wednesday for the NATO session. I doubt if we will see him before then. It may not be necessary since we seem to be locked tight in the present position. There is general agreement that we must stand firm. Hence, no high-level pow-wow seems to be called for at the moment. We agree that you can only reiterate your position at the next meeting, emphasizing the firmness of our stance on this position and picking away at the chinks in Wang’s armour. I believe you very effectively exploited the point that his objections are all related to the fact that he envisages a PRC resort to use of offensive force in certain contingencies.

We have finally received a preliminary acknowledgment from Immigration to our letter of April 5 requesting a survey of all the Chinese in US prisons. A copy of this acknowledgment, dated April 24 is enclosed. You will note that 8 of the prisoners claim American citizenship and another one is a mental patient rather than a convict. This leaves 42 known Chinese aliens in penitentiaries.

Enclosed are 42 sheets giving the INS reports on each of the names of Chinese mentioned by Wang as encountering interference with departure. We have not yet received INS reports on the remaining 7.

I also enclose as of background interest a good example of the kind of propaganda drive Peiping has been conducting to bring about defections on Taiwan. Such broadcasts by former officials of the GRC, now with the Communists, addressed to their ex-colleagues on Taiwan are an almost daily occurrence. So far they have had no perceptible effect. This particular broadcast is interesting in that it expressly links “peaceful liberation” of Taiwan with the world-wide Communist drive for “relaxation of tensions”. This suggests that the Chinese Communists are well aware of the damage military action in the Taiwan area would cause to their general political posture. You will note that the broadcast speaks not only of the “peaceful liberation” of Taiwan (which the Communists are not presently capable of taking with military force) but also of Minmen, capture of which might be within their capabilities. All of this leads to the conclusion that the Chinese Communists are unlikely to launch any large-scale offensive in the near future and that our estimate is probably correct that continued talks with them make it more difficult for them to resort to military action. I also enclose a copy of our briefing paper on the Geneva talks, prepared for the NATO Ministerial Meeting. You will see that this is much less detailed and less sensitive than what we originally contemplated.

[text not declassified] You were very cooperative to release Holdridge to Hong Kong so promptly. I hope the new arrangement will work out and that neither you nor Dave will suffer unduly, as a result. It seems to us that you should be given the best young officer at Geneva to assist you at the meetings. Your letter No. 29 of April 18 came on the 24th and was read with great interest by Judge Phleger, and Bill Sebald as well as myself. Walter Robertson will continue on sick leave until May 14. He got out of bed to give a major speech at Staunton, Virginia, on April 27 as part of the Woodrow Wilson Centennial Celebration.

Al Westphal, on the staff of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, told me last week that the Dodd Subcommittee probably will not give any further consideration to the question of investigating treatment of Americans in Communist China at least until the end of May. The Committee Chairman has given instructions that no Subcommittee work be done until the Committee as a whole has finished work on the Foreign Aid Bill.

Regards from us all here and congratulations on doing the job precisely the way that is desired here.

Sincerely yours,

Walter P. McConaughy

Enclosure:

1. Letter April 25, 1956 from Immigration.

2. List of 42 Chinese.

3. Excerpt from FBIS, April 24, 1956.

4. Nato Briefing Paper, “Geneva Talks”.

1. Source: Department of State, Geneva Talks Files, Lot 72D415. Secret. Drafted by McConaughy.