360. Telegram 1115 from Geneva1
1115. From Johnson.
This morning I received the following letter from Wang:
I wish to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of November 8. Our side does not bear any responsibility in connection with the news report mentioned in your letter. The groundless charges in your letter are unacceptable at all. However, since reference has been made in your letter of leakage of the contents of our talks I am inclined to point out that it is precisely American official quarters and Western news agencies which have on many occasions made disclosures of the contents of our talks. During the course of our discussions on the first item of the agenda as well as after agreement on that item was reached the spokesman of the U.S. Department of State and Western news agencies had been making side disclosures on certain substance of our discussions on the first agenda item as well as on the United States attitude in refusing to undertake discussion of other matters under the pretext of implementation of agreement.
You will certainly recall when on September 14 you violated the agreement between both sides on the publication of information by openly making a statement disclosing the points at issue in the talks. Since we entered into the discussion of agenda item two the disclosing of the contents of our talks by American official quarters and Western news agencies has assumed an even more serious nature. Following your proposal at our meeting of October 8 for both sides to make a statement on the renunciation of force to achieve national objectives, the U.S. Secretary of State Mr. Dulles in a speech delivered before the annual convention of the [Facsimile Page 2] American Legion asked that China accept the principle that “military force should not be used aggressively to achieve national goals”. The United States Government was thus implicitly and intentionally leaking the substance of our talks through its Secretary of State. At a press conference on October 18 Mr. Dulles made yet another disclosure of the substance of our talks. He not only stated the intention of the United States with regard to the first item of the agenda but also disclosed that our talks were already discussing the question of renunciation of force. In view of the repeated disclosure of the substance of our talks by American official quarters and Western news agencies which has already created an extremely confused impression in public [Typeset Page 499] opinion, the Chinese Government is therefore considering a clarification of its position to the public.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 611.93/11–1055. Confidential.↩