315. Editorial Note
At a news conference on November 12, 1959, Secretary of State Herter replied to questions about the U.S. position regarding the Sino-Indian border dispute that neither side had appealed to the United States and the United States had not taken sides in the dispute. He remarked that the border was “pretty ill defined” and indicated that the United States had no position on the issue. Following the news conference, Herter authorized the release of a statement that although his answers had related only to the legalities of the rival claims, “There is the further, and more important point, that, whatever may be the merits of a dispute, force must not be used to settle it. The Chinese Communist regime has clearly used force and, in this respect, is wholly in the wrong.” On November 13, the Department of State released a statement that Secretary Herter had called in the Indian Chargé d’Affaires, D.N. Chatterjee, and made it clear that his news conference statements were not meant to imply that the United States condoned the use of force by the Chinese Communists. For the transcript of the news conference and the text of both statements, see the Department of State Bulletin, November 30, 1959, pages 782–787. Extracts of Herter’s statements at the news conference, together with the text of both statements are in American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1959, pages 1190–1191. Telegram 1781 to New Delhi, November 14, summarized Herter’s conversation with Chatterjee. (Department of State, Central Files, 691.933/11–1459; see Supplement)
At a news conference on December 2, President Eisenhower replied to a question on the Sino-Indian border dispute that the real issue was whether nations were going to settle their differences by negotiation or [Page 629] by the use of force. For the text of his remarks, see American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1959, pages 1191–1192; for the transcript of the press conference, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1959, pages 785–794.