Memorandum of the Press and Radio News Conference

(NOT FOR THE PRESS) 16 (FOR DEPARTMENTAL USE ONLY) 'NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS FRIEND SERVICE" DEPARTMENT OF STATE NO. 8 MEMORANDUM OF THE PRESS AND RADIO NEWS CONFERENCE, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 1951 SECRETARY A CHESON At his press and radio news conference this morning, Acting Secretary Webb said he would like to say first that the Secretary was having a good rest at Bermuda although he had had to spend a couple of days in bed with a very bad cold. He added that he thought Mr. Acheson was over that now and was getting a rest. He said that the Secretary was expected to arrive back in the United States next Monday. IRAN (Assassination of Prime Minister Razmara) The Acting Secretary said that he had a statement with respect to the assassination of the Prime Minister of Iran. (See Press Release NO. 183) Asked if there were any reason to suppose that the Prime Minister had been murdered because he had been devoted to maintaining the independence of his country, Mr. Webb said that he had no knowledge of that. Asked if he had any reason to believe that the assassina- tion of Premier Razmara would in any way change the close re- lations between the United States and Iran, the Acting Secre- tary replied in the negative. Asked if whatever aid programs we had for Iran were continuing without interruption despite this particular situation, Mr. Webb answered in the affirma- tive. He explained that we were dealing with the Government of Iran and changes within that Government should not neces- sarily affect our relations or the programs on which we were together He added that, of course, this assassina- tion had been very recent and as to any specific results it would be purely in the realm of speculation at this time. A correspondent inquired if the Acting Secretary had re- ceived any news from the American Embassy in Tehran as to whether the assassination had been plotted by a left-wing group or by a reactionary group of rightists or Old Moslem Guard. Mr. Webb replied that he had no information beyond what they had on their own wire services. KOREAN SITUATION A correspondent commented that General MacArthur had flown to the front today and had made a statement in which he had said that under the present abnormal military inhibitions, in time the Korean war would reach a point of theoretical military stalemate. The correspondent continued that General Mac- Arthur had then said that decisions were yet to be made on the highest international levels regarding the problems raised by Red China's intervention. The correspondent inquired if in that connection Mr. Webb would say what the present diplomatic situation was regarding the Korean war and what the planning was along these lines to clear up these difficulties. Mr. Webb re- sponded that first of all, we were constantly working with the United Nations as an organization and with the other nations who were concerned with the operation in Korea. He added, that as they knew, we had had a procedure for briefing the representa- tives of other nations with respect to happenings and operations and plans. He remarked that beyond that he was not quite sure what the correspondent meant by diplomatic.