858. Letter from Martin to Clough1
We should probably wait to see what response comes from Peiping on our latest move before deciding the question of “advisers” which I raised in my last letter, and which you mentioned in your last letter to Alex. Nevertheless, I will give you my preliminary thinking, since I discussed it with Alex and he goes along with it.
In the event that the Chicoms agree to continue the talks with me as the United States representative, I think they will do so only on the basis of “equality,” meaning that they will appoint a person of First Secretary rank to meet with me. As Wang made it clear in his reaction last Thursday to our proposal (and as one would expect on the basis of Chicom behaviour in general), any talks conducted on a First Secretary level will be routine in the extreme. I can’t imagine the Communists being willing to discuss any policy question (e.g. renunciation of force) at that level; the best we could expect to get out of such talks would be information as to prisoners and welfare, etc. and precious little of that. In these circumstances, I would certainly question the need of an “adviser” of the caliber and rank of Dave Popper or Bob Rinden. Moreover, I feel (as does Alex) that assignment of Dave Popper would put an undue strain on the Consulate General at Geneva.
[Facsimile Page 2]Thus, if the Communists do agree to go on with the talks with me and appoint someone of my level to carry this task out, I feel that, at least for the first meeting, I might simply take Cameron LaClair with me to shuffle documents and Sue Gross for the purpose of keeping the record, and Dexter for interpreting—as well as Ekvall, if the meeting is held in time. Alex agrees that the present system of having LaClair take what approaches a verbatim transcript is a rather inefficient hangover from the original idea of keeping the talks on an informal basis, and there is no reason why Sue shouldn’t do it.
We were sorry not to have Dexter at the last meeting, since it appears unlikely there will be another in which he can overlap with Bob Ekvall. Bob will be available only until January 15. However, he should have his present travel orders extended in case we do have a meeting before then.
Sincerely,
First Secretary of Embassy
- Source: Department of State, Geneva Talks Files, Lot 72D415. Confidential; Official–Informal. Martin signed the original “Ed.”↩