<--PREV Doc #124  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #126 Document #125; April 2, 1953 To John Foster Dulles Series: EM, AWF, Dulles-Herter Series ; Category: Top secret The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIV - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part I: Charting a New Course; January 1953 to April 1953 Chapter 2: "A number of misunderstandings": Party and International Struggles   Memorandum to the Secretary of State Reference: Your memorandum of April first giving me the text of Clark's note to the Communists and of Eden's telegram to you.1 I am quite prepared to discuss further with you our position in the matter. I had assumed--possibly erroneously--that the exchange of sick and wounded prisoners could be accomplished with reasonable celerity. Moreover, C. D. Jackson was insistent that unless this business were an accomplished fact before we actually began negotiations on the wider issue, we would encounter the same kind of frustrations that have always characterized our negotiations with the Soviets. This frustration has arisen from the fact that their practice has been to accomplish nothing until every last atom of their own contentions, sometimes in totally unrelated fields, were accepted. As I understand it, you and I both believe we should take a lesson from these past experiences and before opening up again the long dreary process of negotiations that could easily repeat the whole history of the past year and a half, we should use this business of the sick and wounded as a sort of test of good faith on the part of the Soviets. I do not believe that we want to put out any public statement in just this way, but if we should, after re-study, adhere to our convictions in this point, it might be well for the State Department to put out a statement in which is the clear assumption that, of course, the exchange of sick and wounded will be an accomplished fact as a preliminary to the broader negotiations. This matter has some urgency because I am to have a press conference this afternoon. I am rushing it over to you right away, and after you have read this I hope you will give me a ring so as to determine whether or not I should answer any questions whatsoever on this subject, or whether it would be wiser for me to remain completely silent.2 With reference to the memorandum from Mr. Pearson of Canada, I think that his paper should be circulated to all the individuals who bear any responsibility in helping to make up the American decision on the power development aspect of the Seaway.3 It might be well for you to give a copy of it to a few of our Congressional friends on a confidential basis. However, I would not do this last if it would be any violation of your understanding with Mr. Pearson. 1 For background see no. 117; and Dulles's April 1 memorandum, State, Foreign Relations, 1952-1954, vol. XV, Korea, pt. 1, p. 833. 2 At Eisenhower's press conference that afternoon the first question reporters asked him concerned his estimate of recent Korean "peace overtures." The President noted that the exchange of sick and wounded prisoners "would do much to promote negotiations for an armistice" and provide evidence that "deeds, rather than words and frustrating conversations, were now to come into vision" (New York Times, Apr. 3, 1953). 3 See no. 114. Canadian Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson had written Dulles on March 24 to inform the U.S. government that because 50 percent of the free world's supply of nickel came from southern Ontario, completion of the hydroelectric aspect of the St. Lawrence Seaway project was a "matter of prime importance and urgency to Canada" (AWF/A: St. Lawrence Seaway). For further developments see no. 165. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Top secret To John Foster Dulles, 2 April 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 125. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/125.cfm <--PREV Doc #124  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #126

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