Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, President Harry S. Truman, and John Foster Dulles

140 141 s C ? & ) . RECORDS AND C SERVICE" A May 28, 1951. MEMORANDUM OF CONVERSATION WITH THE PRESIDENT AND MR. DULLES Mr. Dulles accompanied me today on my visit to the, President and talked with the President for about twenty minutes on his mission to London and Paris. The Presi- dent was nuch interested in Mr. Dulles's report, fol- lowed it closely, and spoke varmly of the importance of the mission. Three points in particular were mentioned in our discussion with the President. The first was that our instructions were not to enter into final commitments on benalf of the United States. Both Mr. Dulles and I assured the President that we had no intention of doing this. However, it was pointed out that - and the President agreed - as these conversations went on, it inevitably became more difficult for the United States to change its position. We went over the various matters which would come under consideration. I assured the President that they were all matters on which there was complete concurrence within the Government and in his instruc- tions. I assured the President that Mr. Dulles would keep me fully informed of his talks and that I, in turn, would keep the President fully informed. The second point related to our present thinking in regard to any signature on the treaty on behalf of China. It was our recommendation that neither the Nationalist Government nor the Communist Government should be included as a signatory of the treaty. This was la problem primarily for the Japanese and the inclu- sion of either Government at this point would raise very grave problems a.s to whether any treaty could be brought to the point of signature. The President thought that this was the wisest course to pursue. f DECLASSIFIED E. O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and 5(D) or (E) 5-12-24 Dept. af State letter, Aug 9, 1973 DE sua HC PLARS Date 6-25-26