Dulles Papers
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Consultant to the Secretary (Dulles)
| Participants: | President Truman |
| John Foster Dulles |
I called on the President at his request at 12:30 p. m., October 3. The President stated that he wanted personally to offer me the Ambassadorship to Japan. He knew that I did not want to take it, but he said he would not be happy if he had not offered it personally as evidence of his appreciation of the very fine results I had achieved in relation to the Japanese Peace Treaty. I told the President I greatly appreciated his attitude and was honored by his proposal, but I preferred not to accept it. I stated that I thought that while the task of the first Ambassador to Japan was one of the most difficult and important that we had, my own particular usefulness might be greater here at home, particularly in relation to helping to keep American public opinion informed with reference to the importance of bipartisan cooperation in foreign policy. I said that there was no point in being at the end of a transmission line if the power house itself was not functioning and perhaps I could be more useful for the time being at the power house rather than at the end of the transmission line. The President said he appreciated my point of view and would not attempt to dissuade me from it. We then discussed other aspects of the Japanese situation, in which connection see my memorandum of even date to Secretary Acheson.1
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