662. Letter 38 from Johnson to McConaughy1
First, Ekvall has not heard anything concerning extension of his orders and his time is up on June 30. It is putting him in a difficult position with regard to extending the lease on his house, etc.
Next, I received the guidance for tomorrow’s meeting this morning and appreciate it very much. I plan to open with implementation, attacking his position at the last meeting but in a fairly low key and see where it leads. Incidentally, with respect to renunciation I find that the correspondents here really do not understand what the fuss is all about. The American correspondents accept what we say on faith but really do not understand it and the foreign correspondents are more skeptical. One of the difficulties I find is that by emphasizing the “slightness” of our April 19 changes to their December 1 draft the question is raised as to why then their December 1 draft, if not ideal, is nevertheless not [Typeset Page 1069] acceptable. They follow our explanations but one can see that they are not really very convinced.
Yesterday I encountered Wang at the airport in Prague on our way down, he having come in from Warsaw. I missed seeing him when I first came in the waiting room as he was sitting in the corner all alone but he came across the room to speak to me. He made a point of asking me about the President’s health, expressed gratification that [Facsimile Page 2] he was getting along well. Incidentally, as in the past Czech officials made a point of taking me out to the plane ahead of the other passengers, leaving him to fend for himself.
In Zurich while waiting to change planes we talked at some length in English at which he is obviously improving. I commented on the new horizontal, left to right style of the magazine he was reading which led us to some discussion of the language simplification program. He said they planned definitely to reorganize the language using an alphabet of twenty-seven letters which will be Roman and not Cyrillic. He volunteered that he had asked to postpone the next meeting because he wanted to be in Warsaw for the visit of the Indian Vice President and the opening of a trade fair in Poland in which they had a large exhibit. He commented that there was also a large exhibit of American books at the trade fair. He said his wife spends most of her time in Warsaw and that they have four children. We engaged in a little mutual commiseration on the problems of educating children in the diplomatic service. The usual afternoon rush at the Zurich airport led him to comment on the opening of the tourist season in Europe. I told him that it was expected 550,000 Americans would visit Europe this summer, to which he commented that was a very fine thing as such visits would lead to increased understanding of other people. He said that he had difficulty in getting back to Warsaw between our meetings as on the return trip there was a six-hour layover at Prague and the weather was often bad on the Warsaw-Prague leg. He was as usual outside the meeting room very affable and friendly. None of this has any particular significance, I know, but I thought you would be interested.
Incidentally, while I was gone the UN here called David and said that their space situation was going to be very tight during the ECOSOC meetings from July 9 through August 15 and wondered whether Wang and I had any plans for a vacation. David told them we had not and that he did not anticipate there would be any recess. There would not in any event be any recess of such a length although there was always the possibility of a week’s recess as in the past. They said that in that event they hoped we might find it possible to avoid meeting during the week of July 9. David said of course he could make no commitment but that he had no objection to their saying something to the Chinese if they wished to do so and [Facsimile Page 3] they indicated they were going to call the Chinese. There is, of course, also the problem of our meeting during the week of [Typeset Page 1070] July 4. I am planning a major reception in Prague for the Fourth therefore would not want to meet here until the 6th or 7th. If we do that we might well skip the meeting of July 9 and meet next the week of July 16. I would appreciate any thoughts you may have on this.
Regards to all.
Sincerely,
American Ambassador
P. S. For your info I am submitting an efficiency report from here on Dave’s work with me. I assume you will do one from your end on his work in CA.
P.P.S. I just saw in the paper the news of Jimmy [illegible in the original] accident. Such a tragedy. Would appreciate anything you learn on how they are getting along and where I could write to them.
- Source: Department of State, Geneva Files, Lot 72D415. Secret; Official–Informal. Johnson signed the original “Alex.” The two postscripts are handwritten.↩