35. Memorandum From James C. Thomson, Jr., of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy)1
Washington, July 15, 1964.
SUBJECT
- Warsaw Talk with the Chicoms, July 29
The attached cable from Ed Rice in Hong Kong2 offers a persuasive U.S. line for the re-opened Warsaw talks with Peiping’s new Ambassador July 29.
Rice argues that:
- (1)
- We have here a good opportunity to clarify our various signals to the Chicoms on Southeast Asia.
- (2)
- We should do this in strictly non-polemical fashion—and thereby attempt to alter the tone of the Warsaw meetings for future discussions with the new man.
- (3)
- We should re-invoke the “Bandung principles”.
- (4)
- We should avoid squeezing debater’s points from the literature of Sino-Soviet polemics.
It seems to me that such an approach might help to raise the tone and usefulness of the Warsaw channel. This presentation would be impressive as well to Warsaw’s keyhole listeners, the Poles and the Russians.
May I urge my pals at State to follow this approach in their instructions to Cabot?3
James C. Thomson, Jr.
4
- Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Poland, Cabot-Wang Talks. Secret. A note in Komer’s handwriting on the source text reads as follows: “Jim Thomson and Rice make sense on this one! We may want to use Warsaw channel for real signals, so better not to clog it with a lot of useless noise. RWK.”↩
- Telegrams 48 and 52 from Hong Kong, July 13 and 14 respectively, are attached but not printed. Both are in Department of State, Central Files, POL CHICOM-US.↩
- A note in Bundy’s handwriting next to this sentence on the source text reads as follows: “Yes, indeed.”↩
- Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩