809. Letter from Clough to Johnson1
I haven’t a great deal to add to our conversation last Tuesday. I have discussed the matter of your instructions for the next meeting with Dave Osborn and Howard Jones, and we have some ideas on how to meet the problem which you mentioned to the Secretary. We plan to discuss the draft instructions with Mr. Robertson either today or Monday and will also send them up to the Secretary.
The problem of travel of newsmen to Communist China remains unresolved and the Secretary is currently considering the latest proposal for some kind of pool arrangement. We still feel here that if newspaper men are permitted to go, it would be very difficult to hold the line on travel of others.
With respect to the missing military personnel, we are still thinking in terms of having the next move take place in Panmunjom. We have been urging Defense to move on this, but they have not yet [Typeset Page 1374] indicated when they will be ready to do so. I hope that it will be before your next meeting so that we could then shift the attack to Geneva if it seemed desirable. We are tentatively thinking that if new efforts at both Panmunjom and Geneva bring no results, it might be useful to publish a joint State-Defense report on this subject, going into some detail as to the criteria for placing names on the list, mentioning our various attempts to obtain an accounting from the Communists and giving examples to show how defective has been the accounting we have received.
Tseng Kuang-chih, the student from Purdue University who has been in the state mental hospital at Logansport, Indiana was deported June 13 aboard one of the President liners. Other cases of whom the Chinese Communists have or may have knowledge are:
Lin Lan-ying (memos attached)
Chang Chih-ye (memo attached)
John Woos (copy of letter attached)
Edwin Pon (copy of letter attached)
We have been informed by Immigration and Naturalization Service that Pon is leaving July 7.
We will try to cover in your instructions the various subjects which Wang might raise, and suggest appropriate lines of reply. We have sent [Facsimile Page 2] to Geneva various items of background material which we thought might be useful to you and are attaching to this letter certain others. As a general practice, we send materials as soon as they come to hand rather than hold them to enclose with a letter, since letters have become too infrequent.
We will be watching with interest to see whether Wang presents anything new. We don’t really expect him to, but many remarkable things have been happening in the Communist world of late and he may surprise us.
It was a great pleasure to see you the other day. You can count on us to support to the best of our ability your tedious but skillful endeavors at Geneva.
Sincerely yours,
Director for Chinese Affairs
Enclosures:
- 1.
- Dept. of Defense Press Release re Aircraft Carrier Hornet
- 2.
- FBIS Item re “Armistice Meeting Request Backed” dated June 28, 1957.
- 3.
- FB1S Item re Korean Ambassador’s Statement re Korean Armistice Agreement.
- 4.
- Despatch No. 631 from Taipei re “Cause and motivations for riots of 5/24.”
- 5.
- Chronology of mob attack on U.S. Embassy and USIS at Taipei.
- 6.
- Memo for files re “Increased Tempo of Hostilities around Offshore Islands”
- 7.
- Copy of letter to Edwin Pon dated 6/25/57.
- 8.
- Article from New York Times dated 6/13/57 re “U.S. Carrier Plane Hit by Red Chinese Gunfire”.
- 9.
- Telegram from CINCUNC Tokyo No. FE 208197 re 76th meeting of the MAC.
- 10.
- Telegram from CINCUNC Tokyo No. FE 208123 re 75th meeting of MAC.
- 11.
- FBIS item dated June 13, 1957 entitled “US Chiang Planes Invade Kwangtung”.
- 12.
- FBIS item dated June 13, 1957 entitled “U.S. Die-Hard Group Hostile to China”.
- 13.
- Defense Department News Release dated June 21, 1957
- 14.
- Copy of Memo dated 12/11/56 from FBI re Lin Lan-ying with its enclosures.
- 15.
- Copy of memo dated July 3, 1957 from Mr. Aylward to Mr. Clough re “Dr. Lin Lan-ying—removal of $6,800 in Travelers Checks at San Francisco”.
- 16.
- Item from New York Times, June 24, 1957, re U.S. Missionary Dies in China.
- 17.
- Memo from Aylward to Osborn April 4 re Deportation of Chinese Aliens.
- 18.
- Memo from Aylward to Clough 6/15/57 re Chang Chin-ye
- 19.
- Paper entitled “Interim Assessment of Riots of May 24 in Taipei”.
- 20.
- Communique re Kishi visit, dated June 21, 1957.
- 21.
- Copy of Letter from Father Rigney, dated June 21, 1957.
- 22.
- Statement by Mr. Robertson before the Foreign Operations Sub-Committee of the House Committee on Appropriations 6/27/57.
- Source: Department of State, Geneva Talks Files, Lot 72D415. Secret.↩