386. Letter 18 from Johnson to McConaughy1
This is just a very brief note as I have said just about everything I have to say in the telegrams I am sending off today.
Thanks for your letter of November 18. As you can see from my report of today’s meeting, the corner on renunciation of force is, as you foresaw, getting tighter and some decisions are going to be required before my next meeting.
What I am principally writing about is the entire question of what I suppose might be termed my administrative support. I am very disturbed at the amount of time and energy it is necessary for both of us to devote to this. If these talks are in fact as important as we believe [Typeset Page 541] them to be, the Department should surely be able to find some way of making available the extremely modest funds required so that there is not this continuous wrangle over whether I am to receive the minimum support I must have in the administrative field. I have no car or driver here and use a Consulate Chevrolet only for the purpose of getting to and from meetings, while Wang parades around in his big Zim with chauffeur. I have no secretary of my own, a single secretary loaned by the Consulate serving all three of us. Etc., etc. I am not saying this in any sense as a complaint but simply to point up what I believe to be the fact that no operation of comparable importance to the United States has ever been handled with less cost to the Government. Therefore, it seems inexplicable to me that there has to be this continuous wrangle about the few things for which there is unquestioned need.
First on my list is the question of a stenographer mentioned in the last paragraph of mytel 1201. When the Consulate agreed to loan me a stenographer, it had no idea that it was going to be for anything like the period that has already passed. However, they have [Facsimile Page 2] been extremely good about it and have cheerfully given me the best they have. However, the Consulate has now lost several girls and is really up against it, and I do not feel it is fair to ask them to continue the present arrangement.
When I sent my 1201, I understood that the question of code room personnel had been resolved following the Foreign Ministers’ meeting and therefore did not raise that. However, this now turns out to have been wrong and Deptel 1277 to the Consulate terminates the present extra clerk December 2, although it states a further period will be considered if required. The Consulate replied by its 1211 asking that the clerk be continued for the duration of my talks, but no reply has yet been received.
I am as sorry to have to bother you with all this as I am annoyed at continually being bothered with it myself. My suggestion is to see whether or not a decision cannot be obtained at whatever level is required to allocate the few thousand dollars that would be required to be used for purposes such as this. The Department knows me well enough to know that I will not ask for anything I do not need.
I should not be writing to you in this tone, Walter, as I full well realize it is certainly least of all any fault of yours, or any other individual for that matter. I well know it’s “the system” and I only hope that what I have had to say will help in getting what is needed. It can also be blamed on bad humor arising from a Geneva cold I’ve been fighting the last few days.
As I mentioned in my telegram, I’m leaving tonight by train to Zurich and taking the plane to Prague tomorrow morning in the hope of having Thanksgiving with the family as well as getting some work done up there. We have had to send home one of my best officers, leaving only [Typeset Page 542] three officers in the entire Embassy including the Consular Officer and Charge, so they are in a bad way and I want to do what I can to help.
I hope that before the next meeting there will be opportunity fully to go over the situation with Herman and the Secretary and will await my instructions with much interest. If it seems advisable, I could come back here on Sunday, but I will take some material with me to Prague so as to be able to respond from there on anything that might appear desirable.
I was very disturbed to hear from Herman that you have not been feeling well. Do take care of yourself—there is a point beyond which it does not pay to try to work.
My best to all.
Sincerely,
American Ambassador
- Source: Department of State, Geneva Talks Files, Lot 72D415. Secret; Official–Informal. The original is signed “Alex” in an unknown hand. A handwritten note in the same hand reads: “Amb Johnson just had time to dicate this but not to sign it before catching his train to Zurich.”↩