775. Letter 52 from Johnson to McConaughy1
I have just received your letter of January 14 and in accordance with your suggestion have this morning sent off a telegram giving my views on the present situation with respect to travel to Communist China. I well realize that it may not be exactly what you are expecting [Typeset Page 1300] but I cannot in all honesty say anything else. David and I both feel very much the same on this. I of course base myself primarily on our evident inability to hold the line and to obtain public support or support from the courts.
In my telegram I also answered your query in regard to the press release of May 1, 1952. In this connection we were not at the time preventing travel to Communist China on the grounds of their unjust imprisonment of American citizens but on the more general grounds of the Korean hostilities which made such travel unthinkable. We, of course, had American citizens unjustly imprisoned at the time in other Communist countries and while I recall that that was a factor in restricting Americans traveling to those areas, I do not believe that we have in any case other than China made it the sole factor. As a matter of fact while the Otis case was a factor in including Czechoslovakia in the ban we never entirely prevented all travel to Czechoslovakia, particularly of newspaper correspondents, and removed the restriction with regard to Czechoslovakia even though we had and still have at least one American unjustly in prison there.
I am surprised that you did not get word of my leaving Prague on January 8. I sent an OM well before Christmas confirming the plans I had mentioned in my previous letter to you. I also sent a telegram on the day I left. I fortunately [Facsimile Page 2] received your letter of January 4 just before leaving and sent a reply by open air-mail from Nuernberg on January 8 which you should have received well before your letter of January 14. In that I had said that I was agreeable to Dave and Helenka going back after the next meeting if it looked as if things were simply going to continue to drag along, subject, of course, to obtaining an adequate replacement for Dave. I said that I was delighted at the prospect of having Ed Martin and thought that his commuting here would be entirely practical.
I do not understand your reference to having sent me material on the Nehru conversations as I have received nothing except background papers prepared in FE. Perhaps you have sent something to Prague which I missed.
I have to close this hurriedly in order to make the pouch.
Regards to all
Sincerely,
American Ambassador
P.S. [text not declassified]
- Source: Department of State, Geneva Talks Files, Lot 72D415. Secret; Official–Informal. Johnson signed the original “Alex.”↩