33. Memorandum From the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Economic Affairs (Barnett) to the Director of the Office of Asian Communist Affairs (Grant)1
SUBJECT
- Transfer of “Warsaw Talks” to Paris
After Tuesday’s Assistant Secretaries meeting with Gov. Harriman, he held me back for a while to talk about China, particularly the Greene film. In the course of our conversation, he indicated that he was inclined to go along with transfer of the “Warsaw Talks” from Warsaw to Paris, and believed also that Cabot had made a good suggestion in offering hope that we might get a quid pro quo from this move which presumably Peking very much wants. In addition to asking the release of our prisoners, he threw out the possibility that we ask Peking to alter its present policy with respect to U.S. scholars and newspapermen desiring to go to Communist China.
Paul Popple rightly points out that there are certain risks in negotiating with Peking over the locus for the Warsaw talks; we might even lose the contact in Warsaw itself. My own view is that we should welcome the transfer, notwithstanding Bohlen’s warnings.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL CHICOM-US. Confidential. Copies were sent to Green, Popple, McNutt, and Thomson.↩