Office of the Historian

284. Telegram From the Embassy in Poland to the Department of State0

Warsaw, June 19, 1959, 5 p.m.

1661. Beam–Wang Talks. 90th meeting 1 hour 40 minutes.1

I opened with brief statement on Taiwan problem based Deptel 1299.2 Wang responded with usual arguments accusing US of “swashbuckling over” to seize Chinese territory and asked how US would feel if foreign country attempted create a second US in Hawaii or had interfered in American Civil War. After some give and take I made statements on missing military personnel and imprisoned Americans, eliciting usual negative response. Wang also said had no further information to give on Bishop Walsh. He concluded by referring to Robertson speech at National Press Club,3 accusing US of violating understanding on confidential nature talks. I denied any such violation and reminded Wang his side did not have [as] clear a record in this respect as he claimed.

Next meeting Tuesday July 28, 2 p.m.

Beam
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 611.93/6–1959. Secret; Limit Distribution. Repeated to USUN and Taipei. The documents cited in footnotes 1 and 2 below are in the Supplement.↩
  2. Beam transmitted the transcript of the meeting in airgram G–417, June 29. (Department of State, Central Files, 611.93/6–2959) He commented in telegram 1663, June 20: “Nothing new in Wang’s exposition. He seemed patently marking time.” (Ibid., 611.93/6–2059)↩
  3. Telegram 1299 to Warsaw, June 1 7, instructed Beam to “open with attack on Wang’s tactic constant repetition false accusations against US and introduction extraneous issues, making clear we intend keep focus on war danger in Taiwan Strait.” (Ibid., 611.93/6–1759)↩
  4. On June 16; for text, see American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1959, pp. 1145–1152.↩