Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, China and Japan, Volume XIV, Part 1

110.11 DU/1–3054: Telegram

No. 166
The Secretary of State to the Department of State¹

top secret
niact

Berlin, January 30, 1954—10 a.m.

Dulte 18. Eyes only for the President. Copy for Acting Secretary. Molotov’s² dinner for me last night was correct and amiable affair. Toasts included his toasting jointly you and Soviet President. I reported your message, and he recalled also meeting you in Washington with Mountbatten.³ Private conversation followed dinner devoted intensively for one hour to China situation,⁴ Molotov urging recognition Communist China. Said our policy was bankrupt, would never succeed in overthrowing Chinese Communists. They were proud people who demanded rightful place. US policy merely forced China closer to Soviet Union which was not to US advantage. Molotov, with apparent sincerity, said he had greatly hoped his proposal for five-power conference⁵ would be an acceptable opening for better relations between US and China. I said US unwilling to enhance moral and political stature of hostile regime. I said we were negotiating in fact with it at Panmunjom. Molotov said this only “low level”.

I asked Molotov whether he thought any positive result could come out of Korean Political Conference, and he said not now. Perhaps there could have been positive results earlier, but probably time for that had passed. I said I doubted value of having conference unless it was known in advance that there could be some possibility of positive results. Molotov acquiesced.

During the entire evening, Molotov never mentioned Germany, EDC, Indochina, or other contentious issues. He said he shared my expressed hope we would find some area of agreement here in Berlin to make the conference at least a partial success. However, his words and manner carried no great sense of conviction.

I meet Molotov privately after today’s conference to pursue your atomic energy proposal.⁶

Dulles

1. Secretary Dulles was attending the Berlin Conference of the Foreign Ministers of the United Kingdom, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States, Jan. 25–Feb. 18. For documentation on the conference, see volume vii.
2. Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov.
3. Lord Louis Mountbatten.
4. For a full report of this conversation, see the memorandum of conversation by Livingston T. Merchant, Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, scheduled for publication in volume vii.
5. For documentation concerning Molotov’s proposal for a five-power conference, to include the People’s Republic of China, see volume vii. The quadripartite communiqué issued at the close of the Berlin Conference on Feb. 18 proposed a conference at Geneva to deal with the problems of Korea and Indochina, to which the People’s Republic of China and other interested parties should be invited; it stated that it was understood that neither the invitation to nor the holding of the conference should be deemed to imply diplomatic recognition in any case where it had not already been accorded. For text of communiqué, see Department of State Bulletin, Mar. 1, 1954, pp. 317–318. For documentation concerning the Geneva Conference, Apr. 26–July 21, 1954, see volume xvi.
6. For documentation on Dulles’ discussions with Molotov on this subject at the Berlin Conference, see volume vii; for further documentation pertaining to Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” proposal, made in an address before the UN General Assembly on Dec. 8, 1953, see vol. ii, Part 2, pp. 1285 ff.