Foreign Relations of the United States, 1951, Korea and China, Volume VII, Part 2

S/P Files: Lot 64 D 563

Draft Telegram, Drafted by Charles Burton Marshall of the Policy Planning Staff¹

top secret

[Washington,] June 19, 1951.

Instructions requested in your message² are as follows: First, it should be disclosed to [name deleted] that Washington has been consulted by cable, and an answer has been received which makes it clear that idea of establishing an authentic yet informal liaison for discussion of pertinent matters has approval on high official levels in U.S. Government. Second, you should have [name deleted] communicate to his principal by quickest appropriate channel that the desire to establish and maintain authentic and informal liaison of most secret character for use in discussion of pertinent matters is firm and sincere and has official backing of high authorities and that these authorities would welcome establishment at earliest practicable time of direct contact with [name deleted] principal or contact through an agent of [name deleted] principal. [Name deleted] communication should stress assurances of sincerity and authenticity of source and secrecy of arrangements. Precise form of [name deleted] communication can best be worked out at that end but we suggest something along the line that he has consulted further with associates of the two stockholders that he had previously referred to and these associates now assure him that the plans of the stockholders have high backing in the headquarters of their firm.

We assume you are coordinating with the Consul General.³

1. The source text was not signed or initialed, but Marshall’s name appears as the drafter. In the interview cited in footnote 1, p. 1652, Mr. Marshall stated that he had no recollection of the telegram or of the message to which it was intended to reply (611.93/1–651). According to notations on the source text, there were five copies of the draft: the source text, filed in the C. B. Marshall file in S/P Files: Lot 54 D 563, one copy sent to the CIA, one copy given to Krentz, and two copies destroyed.
2. An undated message from Hong Kong attached to the source text stated that the person to whom Marshall had spoken on May 17 (see the memorandum of conversation, p. 1667) had received a letter dated June 3 from Peking, acknowledging his letter occasioned by Marshall’s and Chase’s visit to Hong Kong and expressing guarded interest in further discussion of the possible establishment of a channel of communication.
3. There is no indication that this draft telegram was sent, and no further communications in this series have been found in the Department of State files. Concerning an attempt at this time to establish contact with the People’s Republic of China through the Chinese Ambassador in Moscow, see the unnumbered telegrams of June 22 and 25 from Moscow, pp. 545 and 548.