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

682. Letter 51 from McConaughy to Johnson¹

Letter No. 51

Washington, July 20, 1956

Dear Alex:

1. We were glad to get your letter No. 40 of July 11. Messrs. Robertson and Phleger have read it. It would not seem necessary to decide finally at this stage how we will eventually construe the Chinese Communist position on renunciation of force—whether we would publicly stress its threatening aspects or its ostensible partial acceptance of the concept of renunciation of force. We shall be giving some thought to this on a contingency basis although our assessment is that an early break-off is unlikely.

2. We have been quite forehanded with your guidance telegram, No. 60 of July 19th which went off last night. I believe it is the first time we have dispatched your guidance a full week before the meeting. The reason is that the Secretary is leaving today for Panama and Judge Phleger for a week in San Francisco.

3. You will see that we are taking a strong line in refusing to discuss trade controls in the absence of a renunciation of force. It is substantially the position you took last November, and the position you recommended in your comments on the last meeting. We debated for some time whether we should also state that discussion of trade or any other practical matter would additionally be contingent on full Chinese Communist compliance with the agreed announcement. We somewhat reluctantly decided not to put this in, for tactical reasons. At the same time you will understand that this second condition, although not to be expressed by you at this time, still stands. If they should agree to renounce force, we would then point out that they would have to make good on their commitment of September 10 before we could go on to any other practical matter at issue.

4. Enclosed is a translation of a circular letter to Chinese students in this country, mailed from mainland China. We got this through Intelligence sources.

5. We have heard of one additional Chinese student who has gone insane. His name is [text not declassified] from the University of Minnesota. He has been in the mental ward of the University of Minnesota Hospital since February. The doctors think his condition is attributable to letters he has received from his family in China. He received letters through the open mail from his family which praised the Communist regime and urged him to return. Later he received smuggled letters which told him the former letters had been written under pressure and that he should disregard them. Although [text not declassified] is an aeroengineer, apparently he was never on the list of technically trained Chinese who were temporarily restrained from leaving the U. S. Apparently he is not the [text not declassified]. We received this report from the FBI. We have heard nothing from the Minnesota authorities or from [text not declassified] himself. We intend to take no action unless we receive something from those quarters.

6. We are enclosing the latest tabulation of information on Americans in prison in Communist China. While you may have all this information it is more accessible in this tabular form.

7. We have just heard from [text not declassified] that her husband, [text not declassified] has apparently been pretty extensively influenced by the Chinese Communist brainwashing efforts. He has been taken on a tour of a number of Chinese cities. He wrote his wife a long letter containing all sorts of panegyrics on the Chinese Communist accomplishments. She mailed us typed excerpts but apparently left out important parts, possibly because she is embarrassed at the evidence that he has broken to some extent under Communist pressure. We are trying to get a complete copy of the letter. We will let you have what is available in any event.

8. We still have no reply from the Indian Embassy to our appeal for a reconsideration. The Indian Embassy gave us the amazing information the other day that we would probably get the reply from the Chinese Communists at Geneva before the Indian Embassy here had anything. That does not sound encouraging, but we are allowing a few more days before we make plans to proceed independently with the prisoner interviews. From this Indian reply you should probably expect a new attack by Wang at the next meeting on our prisoner initiative.

9. The British are about to jump entirely off the reservation on trade controls. They are exporting 151 “land rovers” (jeeps) to Communist China in defiance of the multilateral control and consultation procedure. We fear they will follow up with a number of tractors. Other countries of course will feel that they are no longer inhibited. The whole system is in jeopardy and we still have no firm position here on how we will deal with the crisis. The Communist Chinese are probably aware of the trend and it may make Wang less insistent on the trade issue at Geneva.

10. We have heard from FE/P that the NBC wants to have a filmed TV interview with you on the first anniversary of the beginning of the talks August 1. We have heard nothing from you on this and it may be a garbled report. In any event we have told FE/P that we think an interview along the anticipated lines would be a mistake and should be discouraged. We do not want to play up your success in keeping the talks going at this time. Judge Phleger in particular feels it would be a serious mistake.

11. SCA feels that it would be a good idea for Ambassador Lodge to make a speech on the question of the 450 servicemen. The State Department is coming in for a lot of unwarranted criticism from many Americans who are writing in. A speech might help to clear the atmosphere and FE is not opposed, assuming of course the content is right.

Regards and good wishes,

Sincerely,

Walter P. McConaughy

Enclosures:

1. Translation of circular letter to Chinese Students dated May 29, 1956.

2. Copy of Tabulation of Information on Americans in Prison in Communist China

3. House Resolution of July 18.

4. Washington News Editorial of July 12—“It’s Just Ransom Talk”.

5. Chinese Communist Comments on Geneva Talks, Carried on Radio Peiping.

1. Source: Department of State, Geneva Talks Files, Lot 72D415. Secret; Official–Informal.