Memorandum of Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, Senator Ralph Flanders, Ben Hill Brown, Jr., and Walworth Barbour

2933 s DEPARTMENT OF STATE ARCHIVES AND RECORDS 318 Memorandum of Conversation Dec.18 DATE?ecember 19, 1951 SUBJECTA Possible Line for US Action in Korea PARTICIPANTSThe Secretary Senator Ralph E. Flanders of Vermont Ben H. Brown, Jr., Deputy Assistant Secretary, Congressional Relations Walworth Barbour, Director, Office of Eastern European Affairs COPIES TO:S/S (2) H EE UNA FE u. s. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 16-61120-1 Senator Flanders called on Tuesday, December 18, by appointment made by reference from the President. The Senator explained a proposal which he would like to put forward for consideration in regard to Korea. Referring to a speech he made in the Senate on July 9, he noted that his idea principally involves the US sug- gesting a meeting among the Korean belligerents, including the Communist Chinese, to discuss a political settlement. The settlement, as he would envisage it, might include a neutral zone along the Yalu river and the unification of North and South Korea on the basis of the US offer to rehabilitate the whole country. Senator Flanders' conception of such a proposal is that, aside from the results of the Korean armistice talks, an initiative by the US along his line would have a propaganda value similar to that inherent in the disarmament plan and would tend to get away from the present contest for world power, although not a substitute for our continuing to build conditions of strength, and would envisage a purely Asian settlement. He noted that some sort of UN tutelage might form part of his plan. In summary, Senator Flanders recapitulated that the salient points of his proposal are (1) to endeavor to insulate the Korean problem; (2) to provide a face-saving device for the Chinese Communists protecting the Manchurian frontier, which they have indicated to be the basis of the Chinese Communists interests in Korea, and (3) it would base a peace structure in Korea on a new thesis. Senator Flanders also touched on the possibility of arousing North Korean popular sentiment which would be necessary to the democratic operation of a Korea unified in this fashion. I thanked