68. Letter from Johnson to McConaughy1
Just a very hasty note this morning before I leave for the meeting to thank you for your letter of August 8 which arrived yesterday. I find [Typeset Page 79] that because of the Atomic Conference there is a pouch leaving today in which I will send this letter.
With regard to the four names, Ralph states he had left them off because they were not on the list Gowen gave the Chinese on May 30th. They have now been added and I do not see this has necessarily raised any particular difficulty.
As we said in our telegram, we had not seen the Denny article and had no idea what it said until your letter. Ralph is the only one who has seen Denny, and he tells me that he definitely did not make any statement to Denny along the lines quoted and I am sure that this is correct.
I feel very much it would have been a serious mistake for me to press the point that the preponderance of Chinese students in the United States maintain their allegiance to the GRC. Wang has been very careful not to raise the issue of the allegiance of all students, as I am sure that he knows the facts and the problems which this would present. We both have been carefully talking only about Chinese who desire to return. Any such sweeping statement on my part would immediately raise the question of how do we know, and it seems to me clearly lead to a proposal for polling all students by some third country, which is exactly the issue we are trying to avoid. If we get into any hot, heavy debate on the subject, it is something I have very much in the back of my mind but do not expect that we will [Facsimile Page 2] do so.
I gave you my feeling on the press backgrounder in my last letter, and I still feel that I have been right. I am confident that in spite of the strain to which they have been subjected, my relations with the correspondents are still on a friendly and sympathetic basis. I have taken a great deal of time in seeing them individually, talking about what I could talk about, explaining my position on secrecy and they are very understanding.
I hope you will continue frankly to keep me informed so that I can promptly clear up any questions as to why I do or do not do this or that.
Sincerely,
American Ambassador
P.S. As another brief note, going back over the record, we noted that when on August 2 Wang gave me a list of Americans and said the cases of those who had been convicted of offenses were being reviewed, he carefully omitted that statement in regard to Downey and Fecteau, who were put in a separate category. This reinforces my belief they are going to be the most difficult and I am not quite sure how best to handle it. While I am of course going to push the maximum on their cases, at [Typeset Page 80] the same time I hope to avoid doing anything that would jeopardize the release of the others. I would welcome any ideas you have on the subject.
- Source: Department of State, Geneva Talks Files, Lot 72D415. Secret; Official–Informal. Johnson signed the original “Alex.”↩