218. Editorial Note
In a speech to the 611th meeting of the United Nations General Assembly on December 6 Indian Defense Minister V.K. Krishna Menon, who headed the Indian Delegation to the United Nations, appealed to the People’s Republic of China to release the remaining Americans still being held in Chinese prisons. Such an action, Menon felt, would have the effect of “clearing the way for the consideration of other difficult problems without this barrier”. (U.N. Document A/PV.611) According to letter No. 61 from Walter McConaughy to Ambassador Johnson, December 7, Menon’s appeal was viewed in the Department of State as a Chinese authorized feeler, meant to lay the basis for Prime Minister Nehru’s arrival in Washington on December 16 for talks certain to touch on relations between the United States and the People’s Republic of China. (Department of State, Geneva Talks Files: Lot 72 D 415, Geneva—Correspondence Re US–PRC, 1955–1956) Chinese Premier Chou En-lai was in India at the [Page 446] time, and was asked at Madras on December 6 to comment on Menon’s statement that American prisoners might be released in the near future. Chou described Menon as a “very good friend of ours” who “always has optimistic hopes”, but he made no further comment. (Telegram 116 from Madras, December 7; ibid., Central Files, 033.9391/12–756)