Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XXX, China

313. Memorandum From Alfred Jenkins of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Special Assistant (Rostow)¹

Washington, June 7, 1968.

SUBJECT

• China Items of Interest

1. I have learned confidentially and informally that the proposal for the recognition of Mongolia² has been signed off by Ambassador Bohlen and the Under Secretary and is now on the Secretary’s desk. You may be hearing from him on it. I should think he will want the President’s views on it, and it may be a fit subject for a Tuesday luncheon meeting. The attached Tokyo telegram (Tab A)³ reports recent conversations by UPI correspondent Axelbank with Tsedenbal and the Mongol-ian People’s Republic Deputy Foreign Minister in Ulan Bator, in which both indicated that the MPR would welcome recognition by the United States.

2. A trade package, concerning which I have talked at length with Bob Barnett for many months, is in abeyance largely because of reaction of peripheral friendly countries to the President’s March 31 statement and the Paris talks (i.e., fears that we are becoming soft on communism). As you know, I believe there are a few limited steps in the trade field which we could and should take any time now—especially with the Paris developments. If there should come a Vietnam settlement and either one of the two likely outcomes of the Cultural Revolution, I think we might want to attempt a bit more. Doing so must assume prior groundwork. Dana Robinson (correspondence at Tab B) has been doing some useful work with the academic community, the business community and to some extent the Hill with respect to China trade, largely in the post-Vietnam context. I think he has used very good judgment and has been working in our long-term interest. He has kept me well informed. I am sorry to hear that he has met with such negative response that he is giving up his efforts. We are effectively denying the Chinese Communists almost nothing because of our trade restrictions. Of course we should continue to make it hard for them to get certain things, but Western Europe and Japan as well as European communist countries are in general all too ready to fill the breach. I am convinced that Japan especially will increase its lenient ways.

There have been several signs that the Chinese Communists are regularizing their international relations and attempting to repair the damage of Red Guard diplomacy. It is too soon to speak in terms of a revival of the “Bandung spirit” in Chinese Communist politics, but something of the sort could well come and make it very hard for us to deal with others’ lessened restrictions on China whether it be concerning trade or ChiRep. Meanwhile, it is difficult in most people’s view, I believe, to square the extreme restrictions in our trade policy with our desire for more contact and a freer flow of people, ideas and goods. We would, of course, get no response from Peking as yet, but I do believe that the limited steps proposed in Barnett’s package might well hasten the day when we would be able to take bigger steps in safety and with profit.

3. At Tab C is Peking’s shameless exploitation of the Kennedy assassination.

Al

1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, China, Vol. XII. Confidential.
2. Document 347.
3. Telegram 8714 from Tokyo, May 28. None of the tabs is printed.