3. Editorial Note
At his press conference on August 2, Secretary Dulles replied to a series of questions concerning the Ambassadorial talks in Geneva. In response to a question as to what he had in mind in speaking of a possible “cease-fire”, he commented as follows:
“What we hope to arrive at by progressive steps is a situation where the Chinese Communists will have renounced the use of force to achieve their ambitions. That is the thing I have been emphasizing and driving at for months because, if they are not willing to do that, if they want to use force to achieve their ambitions, that will almost surely start up a war the limits of which could not be defined in advance. How that is brought about I don’t know. That is a matter of policy for the Chinese Communists. I don’t know how they will choose to make that clear, if indeed they do make it clear. I already have said that the speech of Chou En-lai of last Friday [Saturday, July 30] went further in that direction than anything that he has yet said. I hope that what is taking place either at Geneva or outside of Geneva, and the whole trend of world events, will create a situation [Page 6] so that we can feel that we are not under the threat of war from the situation in that area. I said in my press conference of April 26, you may remember, that the United States was not willing to negotiate with a pistol at its head; that the first thing to do is to find out whether there was a threat of war there because, if that was the case, then as far as the United States is concerned it would be quite impossible to negotiate these practical matters.
“I pointed out last week that a number of things had happened which indicated that the pistol had been laid down and that it made it possible to try to clear up now some of these practical matters between us. But the important thing is that the pistol should be permanently discarded, and we hope that the trend of events will bring reassurance on that point.”
The transcript of that portion of his press conference is printed in Department of State Bulletin, August 15, 1955, pages 260–262.
At President Eisenhower’s press conference on August 4, he was asked whether negotiations were underway involving the status of Quemoy, Matsu, and Formosa and replied as follows:
“The present negotiations were called to discuss the question of nationals of one country retained within the territory of the other.
“Now, it was admitted that the discussions might find other subjects which could be discussed, but both the Secretary and I have frequently stated we are not going to discuss the affairs of our friends when our friends are absent. We count the Nationalists on Formosa as our friends. We are not going to discuss their future or their destiny or anything about them until they are there.”
When asked if he would favor a summit meeting with all parties concerned to settle Asian tensions, he replied:
“I think not at this time. I think it would be far too much in advance to talk about the possibility of a summit meeting. They have implications that do not follow upon meetings at a somewhat lower level.
“Now, I believe the Secretary has said that it is within the realm of possibility that these meetings will lead to negotiations possibly on ministerial level, but I think nothing further has been hinted at.”
For the transcript of the press conference, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1955, pages 757–767.