Memorandum of Telephone Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson and Ambassador of Great Britain Sir Oliver Franks

S. TRUMAN to 399 AND RECORDS SERVICE" 68 crif 29-a January 18, 1951 Memorandum of Telephone Conversation The Secretary telephoned the British Ambassador and said that Mr. Rusk and Mr. Bancroft had told him of their conversation with the British Ambassador. The Secretary was afraid that they could not do what Mr. Bevin requested. What he would suggest is that Mr. Austin in his speech today, after saying that the Chinese people were aggressors, would not go into the machinery, but would call for future measures to be considered. He could not promise to go further to meet Mr. Bevin for two reasons: The first was that we had talked with 45 Delegations along the general lines of the paper we had sent to Mr. Bevin about ten days ago. These Delegations understand that this is our general attitude, and if we don't go through with it, we will add to the general confusion. The second reason is that in order to do everything possible to keep everyone together and in going along on the five principles, we brought ourselves to the verge of destruction domestically. The Secretary felt he could not take any further chances unless it made a great deal of sense to do so, and he did not think that Mr. Bevin's suggestion made that kind of sense. It is foolish just to say the Chinese are aggressors and not do anything further about it. That again gets us into the very difficult position which we were in from Saturday through nearly all of Wednesday. The Secretary said he thought the most sensible thing to do to keep the situation cool is to have some UN body which reports to the General Assembly and will keep the matter in the field of dis cussion. The Secretary pointed out that we could have all the preliminary talks with the British which were necessary. But he did not think we could back off from the matter now. The Secretary said he thought someone must have gotten Mr. Bevin stirred up on this question, because he could not see that Mr. Bevin's attitude was a sensible one. Mr. Acheson then read to the British Ambassador a suggested revision of what Mr. Austin would say today, which would leave DECLASSIFIED STATE LTR. 12.7.79 Project NLT 7f.3f By NLT- HL N/RG, 1-21-fc