289. Telegram From the Secretary of State to the Embassy in Italy1
55. For Ambassador only. Deliver following message from President to PriMin Nehru.
“My dear Mr. Prime Minister: I wish to acknowledge your cordial note which I received through your Embassy here under date of the twenty-seventh of June.2 Yesterday, Secretary Dulles had another [Page 638] long talk with Mr. Menon, after which the Secretary and I had a conversation with him, and I took the occasion to send by Mr. Menon to you my very cordial greetings. We have followed with interest your travels and statements which you have made in connection therewith, and we know that in these matters you are actuated by high and noble purpose.
I believe that the talks which we have had with Mr. Menon may have served a useful purpose, at least in clarifying our minds. Also we have had talks here with Prime Minister U Nu.
You will, of course, recall that Mr. Chou En-lai at the Bandung Conference suggested direct talks with the United States with reference to items of tension, and both Secretary Dulles and I responded by saying that we also would be willing to have such talks, provided that we could not deal with the rights of third parties in their absence; but that matters of direct concern to the two of us could be discussed.
Since then Mr. Chou En-lai has reiterated his desire for direct talks, and I am inclined to think that the best step now to take is to explore this course. Secretary Dulles and I are therefore thinking of suggesting that a designated Ambassador of the United States should meet at Geneva with a representative of the Chinese Communist régime of comparable rank with a view to dealing in the first instance with the question of the citizens of each of our countries in the territory of the other who want to return. This topic has, indeed, already been discussed intermittently at Geneva, at the consular level, with some, though meager, results. Further progress in this matter could lead to discussion of other topics which the Chinese Communists might want to suggest and which would be discussable within the limits of the principle which I indicated above.
I hope you will feel that such a move would in fact advance the cause of peace in the Far East, as your letter urges.
I am particularly interested in hearing of your observations in Russia and the conclusions which you draw from them. I hope indeed that you are right that a marked change has come over Soviet policy and that this is not a merely temporary phase. Certainly as I go to Geneva I will be strengthened and encouraged by your feeling that there is substantial reason for hoping for peaceful applications and solutions.
[Page 639]I am, my dear Mr. Prime Minister, with kind regards, Sincerely, Dwight D. Eisenhower.”
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 711.11–EI/7–755. Secret. Drafted by Dulles.↩
- The message from Nehru to Eisenhower, transmitted in a letter of June 27 from Mehta to Eisenhower, expressed the hope that the President had found Krishna Menon’s report encouraging and that some advantage might be taken of the existing situation to advance the cause of peace. It further stated that Nehru’s visit to the Soviet Union had convinced him that the Soviet Government sincerely desired peace, that “a marked change had come over Soviet policy … which was not a mere temporary phase”, and that “more than at any other time in the past, there was substantial reason for hoping for peaceful approaches and settlements.” Mehta’s letter is filed with a letter of July 7 from Dulles to Eisenhower, enclosing a draft message to Nehru and stating, “I think it is useful to be sure that Nehru gets an accurate statement of what we have in mind. Menon himself may warp it, preferring himself to be the ‘chosen instrument’ as intermediary.” The draft message, with a minor revision in Eisenhower’s handwriting, is identical with the message sent. (Eisenhower Library, Dulles–Herter Series)↩