REPUBLIC OF KOREA
OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
June 20, 1952
To: Ambassador B. C. Limb
From: The President
I have read your June 9th letter.
It is timely to raise our voice against American intervention. I hope you will create a sufficient number of friends to support you. Meanwhile we must keep in mind that sometimes our voice may produce adverse results. That is where you must use your wisdom. Let our friends do the talking for us. You can tell them that we are grateful to America and if you and I raise our voices against certain wrong policy of the US Government, the American people may condemn us for being ungrateful. But American interference in our internal affairs is creating the impression among the Koreans that America is doing one thing and saying another. That is how Korean confidence in America may be shaken and it will affect the goodwill of our people toward America. Statement like Sen. Knowland’s will help us more than our direct protest.
Officially we Lave one delegate and UN has one but our voice does not count. If I were you I would demand that just as the Soviets are doing, the US should sit back and let the Korean army officers do the negotiating with the north Korean and Chinese communist delegates. U. S. should direct from behind and the result will be very advantageous. This suggestion will appeal to many Americans. The American people must feel terribly hurt by losing the prestige and honor of the nation in allowing the Chinese and north Korean communist boys to insult high-ranking American officers. It is below their dignity to hit back and all they say is let us wait and meet again tomorrow. If the Americans have any national sense of honor, they will not stand the humiliating and insulting remarks any longer. Another thing is you or someone else can publicly declare with a strong and friendly appeal to the American people that we want to know what America is going to do and never mind what the UN is going to do. For how long are they going to continue this meaningless and hopeless truce negotiations? Since the war started we fought one year and talked another year, for what result? Only to build up Soviet power. If the US is not going to settle this problem right away, we want the US to say so and let the Koreans do whatever they feel like doing. We cannot survive under these circumstances. Korea wants unification with freedom or death. If the Americans are not going to settle these things we cannot survive. If you want to make such a statement as your own and not under government instruction it will be all right with me, because if I instruct you to do it I must also instruct Amb. Yang.
The idea is this: the Democratic Party has been trying to make a stalemate and the American people are getting tired. We have a right to ask what they are going to do from now on. Let the election campaigners say something for or against it. By doing so we may get all the candidates feel forced to say something in our favor publicly.
