Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950, Korea, Volume VII

795.00/12–850

Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. Henry S. Villard, Adviser to the United States Delegation to the United Nations General Assembly

confidential

[New York,] December 8, 1950.

US/A/C.1/2341

Subject: Korean Resolution.

Participants:	Mr. Sven Grafstrom, Swedish Delegation.
	Mr. Henry S. Villard, United States Delegation.

I had dinner last night with Mr. Grafstrom, after which we discussed the Korean situation in some detail. The main points brought out during the course of our conversation were as follows:

(1) The Swedish Government fully supports the Six-Power Resolution and Mr. Grafstrom has his instructions to vote in its favor. He believes that the important thing is to get on with this resolution as soon as possible and to demonstrate by an overwhelming vote that it is not merely the United States, but the United Nations which opposes aggression.

(2) Mr. Graf Strom’s conversation with General Wu at Secretary-General Lie’s dinner demonstrated conclusively, to Mr. Graf Strom’s mind, that Wu was only a megaphone for Moscow and acting the party line under instructions without any will of his own. Grafstrom spent the major part of his time talking to Wu through an interpreter and found that his approach was no different from that displayed in the Security Council. It was futile to expect anything to come out of such talks.

(3) The situation today indicates that we have come face to face with the necessity for a showdown with Soviet Russia, that there is no compromise, no room for “negotiation” with those who seek to enslave mankind. “Black is white”, “war is peace”, “truth is false” are now Soviet dogma and there seems no possibility of reaching agreement on fundamental issues. There is a Swedish saying to the effect, “Better to end in disaster, than disaster without end”. The only solution is for the free nations to unite against those who seek to spread their poison and infect the peoples of the world everywhere.

(4) Mr. Grafstrom considered it useless to transmit messages to Peiping through Rau or any group of Asiatic nations. However, he was inclined to favor the idea of sending a small United Nations commission to Peiping to discuss the situation directly with the authorities there and to impress upon them the unity of virtually all members of the United Nations. Direct representations on the spot to those in control of the Chinese Communist regime might penetrate the barrier of propaganda which isolates them from the world and tend to convince them of the peaceful objectives of the West and its desire to attain a reasonable solution. Sweden would be willing to serve on such a commission, said Grafstrom.

(5) Mr. Grafstrom asked that we keep in touch with the Swedish Delegation in order that it in turn may inform the Government in Stockholm as to the trend in our thinking. Stockholm was naturally looking to the United States for leadership in the crisis, although Grafstrom again emphasized that it was not the United States alone, but the United Nations which should be considered as acting against the aggression in Korea.