CDKW00461 - Progressing Favourably

In this segment of minutes from a meeting conducted on December 20, 1951, Pearson concludes that “the talks in Korea looking to an armistice appeared to be progressing favourably.” However, Washington wanted to put out a bold statement attesting that actions taken against the UN in Korea would likely not confine the war to the Korean peninsula—a move that Ottawa and London both thought deeply unwise. The Canadians did not want to commit in advance to any actions against China and lobbied for a much vaguer threat; the Americans, in response, were willing to moderate their recommended statement to a middle ground between the initial US and UK positions. The Defense Committee backed Pearson’s assessment, demonstrating that Canadian diplomats continued to back a more measured approach to the conflict in Korea than their American neighbors throughout 1951.