75. Letter 3 from Johnson to McConaughy1
Thanks very much for your letter of August 10. I understand the same more frequent pouch schedule will be in effect through next week so I will take full advantage of it.
I had thought that my previous telegram on a replacement for Ed Martin had overtaken your letter. Therefore I had not replied to this point. However, I today sent a telegram simply stating that he was leaving August 16th. As I previously said, Ed has been invaluable to me here and I greatly regret his going. If there were any possible way [Typeset Page 85] of keeping him without sacrificing his opportunity to go to the War College I would certainly want to do so. However, I do not see that a few days one way or the other is going to make much difference as long as he is leaving in any event, and, therefore, have agreed to his leaving in time for him to get back for the opening. I also feel that it will be very useful to both of us for him to have the opportunity to discuss fully with you in Washington the situation here as we see it. He plans to come to the Department just as quickly as he arrives.
I am particularly anxious that he discuss with you the question of broadening the scope of representation as suggested in my 364. So I will defer any discussion of that in this letter.
I appreciated the information on income tax clearance for departing aliens. I was aware of this requirement when I was discussing the matter with Wang, but I am glad to have the exact information. As you will see from the full report [Facsimile Page 2] of the meeting, the discussion was in the context of exit permits. I was trying to make my statement just as strong as possible and believe that it is fully correct within the context. It seems to me that it goes without saying that before anyone departs he should take care of his obligations, including taxes. It just points out that Treasury handles income tax matters in the manner it does. It is in no sense a control over the departure of aliens. I intend to stand on statements I have made in this regard.
Thanks very much for the Denny article, which we had not seen. As you observed, most of the article is deduction on the basis of a few scraps of information, and not very good deduction at that.
The Secretary’s last press conference was of tremendous help to me. I was able to point out to correspondents here that he said almost exactly what I have been saying to them. Please thank the Secretary for me. I believe our press problem is now rapidly approaching its proper proportion.
Sincerely,
American Ambassador
- Source: Department of State, Geneva Talks Files, Lot 72D415. Secret; Official–Informal. Johnson signed the original “Alex.”↩