May 2, 1952
MEMORANDUM OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION
Participants: Mr. Short Mr. Acheson
Mr. Short telephoned the Secretary today and referred to Syngman Rhee's letter of March 21 to President Truman and to the Secretary's memorandum to the President recommending that there be no reply. Mr. Short said that the President thought that the letter should have a reply. The President had said he thought Rhee's letter was a very good letter and deserved a reply and that the reply should be sent at an early date. Mr. Short asked if the Secretary thought there was a possibility of a non-committal reply.
The Secretary said he thought there could be, but the troublesome thing was the question Rhee raised of the possibility of a security treaty. The Secretary pointed out that we could not enter into this and it would be difficult to write a letter which would ignore it or brush it off. We could not give him encouragement. The Secretary said that in answer to the President's feeling that it would be discourteous not to reply, that any letter sent to Rhee would be a reply to the Rhee's reply to the President's previous letter, and that this might involve a long correspondence which would be difficult to shut off.
Mr. Short then suggested that maybe some sort of message could be gotten informally through Muccio to Rhee giving him the President's greetings and saying that the President was pleased with Rhee's letter. Mr. Acheson said he thought this was a good suggestion and he would try to have Mr. Allison draft something to be submitted to the President when Mr. Acheson sees him on Monday;
S:BEvans: mlm