Office of the Historian

Conference files, lot 59 D 95, CF 100

No. 350
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (Perkins) of a Meeting of Secretary of State Acheson and Foreign Secretary Eden at the Department of State, January 9, 1952, 4:30 p.m.1
secret
TCT CONV–4—Part I2
January 9, 1952, 4:30 p.m.

Present:

  • U.S.

    • Secretary Acheson
    • Mr. Matthews
    • Mr. Perkins
    • Mr. Berry
    • Mr. Rountree

  • U.K.

    • Secretary Eden
    • Sir Roger Makins
    • Mr. Burrows

At the beginning of the meeting, Mr. Eden said there was one point on which he needed clarification in connection with Korea. He said if there was an armistice, was he right in assuming that [Page 832] the US suggestion was there should be a UN committee to negotiate a political settlement.

Mr. Acheson replied that was correct; that we had thought of a committee of five or seven, the number to depend upon whether France and the UK wished to participate. The other five would be the USSR, US, Australia, Turkey and Thailand.

Mr. Eden indicated that he thought they definitely would wish to participate.

Mr. Acheson stated that he thought perhaps the only real accomplishment such a committee could make would be finding some formula by which the UN troops stationed in Korea might be reduced in number.

  1. Drafted on Jan. 11. For the records of two other subjects discussed at this meeting, see TCT CONV–10, supra and TCT CONV–4—Part II, infra. The records of the Department of State do not indicate the order in which the subjects were discussed.↩
  2. Parts II and III are printed infra and as Document 355.↩