Oral History Interviews with John F. Melby U.S. Foreign Service Officer, 1937-55, with assignments in Juarez, Mexico, 1937; Caracas, 1939-41; Moscow, 1943-45; Chungking and Nanking, 1945-48; and office of Philippine and Southeast Asian Affairs, 1949-55. Interview Transcripts November 7, November 14, November 21, & November 28, 1972 See also John F. Melby Papers finding aid

NOTICE
These are transcripts of tape-recorded interviews conducted for the Harry S. Truman Library. A draft of each transcript was edited by the interviewee but only minor emendations were made; therefore, the reader should remember that these are essentially transcripts of the spoken, rather than the written word.

Numbers appearing in square brackets (ex. [45]) within the transcript indicate the pagination in the original, hardcopy version of the oral history interview.

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These oral history transcripts may be read, quoted from, cited, and reproduced for purposes of research. They may not be published in full except by permission of the Harry S. Truman Library.

Acheson, Dean:

and China, 164, 167, 168, 173-174
and Japanese peace treaty, 257-260
and Korea, 235
and Melby, John F., 258, 260
and White Paper on China, 168, 173-174
Aquino, Corey, 228

Barr, David (Major General), 147-148
Batista, Fulgencio, 43-44
Bell, Daniel W., 209
Bell mission to Philippines, 209-211
Bohlen, Charles, 67, 73
Bonsal, Philip, 45, 249--250
Brazil, in 1920s, 2-4
Burma, 214
Butterworth, Walter, 139-140, 142-143, 232

and White Paper on China, 173

Cartier-Bresson, Henri, 321-322
Chambers, Whittaker, 310, 311
Chiang Kai-shek, 131, 133, 147, 153, 157-160
Chiang Kai-shek, Madame, 153
China:

Communist takeover of, 124, 125-126
Soviet Union, relations with, 122, 166
U.S. aid to, 155
White Paper on, 167-176, 181
China lobby, 179, 318
ChineseCommunists, as "agrarian reformers," 116-117
Chinese Communists, and warlords, 165
Chou En-lai, 116, 122, 127, 141
Clark, Joseph, 298
Clark, Lewis, 144, 146
Clough, Mary Lou, 149
Clough, Ralph, 117, 149
Clubb, Edmund, and loyalty hearings, 308-312
Colegio Bennett (school), 3-4
Compton, Arthur, 46
Connors, Brad, 144-145
Cowen, Myron, 183, 184, 190, 201-202, 204-208, 230, 231, 236, 238, 240, 241, 264

and Melby, John F., testimony regarding, 278

Davies, John Paton, 79-80, 168, 313-315
Davies, Patricia, 314-315
Deane, John R., 53-54, 77
Democratic League (China), 138, 265
Deutch, Michael, 211
Dilling, Elizabeth, 22-23
Dulles, John Foster, and Japanese peace treaty, 257-259
Durbrow, Elbridge, 105

Eisler, Gerhart, and Hellman, Lillian, 279-281
Emmerson, John, 37
Erskine, Graves B., 213


Fairbanks, Wilma, 135, 136
Flynn, Edward J., 87-94
Fugh, Philip, 142-143


Gisburne, Gene, 297
Gosnell, Harold, 9


Harriman, Kathleen, 64-65, 77
Harriman, W. Averell;

and China, U.S. policy towards, 80, 95-96
and Melby, John F., 299
and Soviet Union, Ambassador to, 53, 60, 62, 65, 66-67, 69, 70, 77-78, 81
and Stalin, Joseph, 63-64
and Yalta Conference, 66-67, 69
Heath, Donald, 215, 216, 217
Hellman, Lillian:
and Melby, John F., 65, 78-79, 263-274, 278-281, 288-289, 291-293
hearing before House Un-American Activities Committee, 291-292
Henderson, Loy, 74
Hiss, Alger, in Moscow, 88-89
Ho Chi Minh, 221
Holbrook, Richard, 299
Holmes, John, 297
Hordern, Hilda, 142, 147, 247
Hornbeck, Stanley, 24-25
Hull, Cordell, 42-43
Hungary, and Soviet occupation of, 70-71
Hurley, Patrick, and China, 111-115, 133, 134

Illinois Wesleyan University, 6
Indo-China, 211-225

Jacoby, Annalee, 114-115
Japan, peace treaty, and Philippines, 225-226
Johnson, Lyndon B., and Vietnamese policy, 319-320
Jones, Roger, 287

Katzenbach, Paul, 319
Kennan, George, 71-73, 74-76, 79
and Melby, John F., 305
Kerr, Clark, 102
Knowland, William, 169, 170
Korean war, Chinese intervention in, 125, 126, 241
Kuibyshev (USSR), 50

Lacy, William, 246-249, 252-255
Landon, Margaret, 251
Lansdale, Ed, 184, 187, 188-189, 240
Latin America, U.S. policy toward, in World War II, 34-49
Laurel, Jose, 229
Levinson, Sy, 307-308
Lind, Lucy, 255
Ludden, Raymond, 117, 133, 135, 144

MacArthur, Douglas, 243
Magsaysay, Ramon, 183, 185-191, 199, 246
Mandate of Heaven (book), 297, 320-324
Mao Tse-Tung, 169
Marcos, Ferdinand, 192-193
Marshall, George C., 149-154
and Chou En-lai, 122, 127-133, 140-141, 151-153, 156-158
Marshall, Hillary, 322, 323
Marshall mission to China, 122, 127--133, 140-141, 151-153, 156-158
McGuire, Father, 285-286
McLeod, Scott, 286
Meiklejohn, Robert, 64
Melby, John F.:
career after dismissal from State Department, 294-324
and China, assignment to, 92-94, 109-110
and Chou En-lai, 123
China, departure from, 145-148
efficiency reports on, 305-306
Foreign Service, dismissal from, 262, 288-290
and Harriman, W. Averell, 224-225, 299
investigation of, 262-285
security clearance restored to, 300
at United Nations Charter Conference, 96-97, 100-104, 107-108
United States Embassy in Chungking, duties in, 119
and U.S. policy toward China, evaluation of, 178-180
Melby-Erskine mission to Southeast Asia, 211-219, 252, 259-260
Menon, Krishna, 126
Merriam, Charles, 9
Michael, L. G., 51, 60-61
Molotov, Vyacheslav, and President Roosevelt's death, reaction to, 99-100
and United Nations Charter Conference, decision to attend, 98-99
and Vatican, 90
Munich. syndrome, 318
Murmansk, USSR, 60-61
Muskie, Edmund, 300

National Council on Asian Affairs, 295, 296
Nelson, Donald, 150-151
Newman, Robert, 175-177, 281, 283
Nicaragua, and Sandanistas, 162-163
Nitze, Paul, 75-76, 125

Office of Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, 46-49

Page, Ed, 64
Parker, Jameson, 210
Pearson, Drew, 208-209
Peru, and Ecuador, conflict between, 32-34
Peru, U.S. policy toward, 39-42
Petrov, A.A., 119
Philippines, 148
and absentee landlords, 196
elections in, 200-204
Huk rebellion, 181-182, 187, 196, 245
Japanese treaty, reaction to, 225-226
nationalism in, 227-229
U.S. policy toward, 181-205, 210-211, 237-241
and War Claims Commission, 230
Phillips, Joe, 55
Prado, Manuel, 36
"Perimeter speech." of Acheson, 244
Precinct captains, role of, 9-11

Quezon, Manuel, 188
Quirino, Elpidio, 182, 184, 197-198, 200, 203, 237, 239

Radford, Arthur, and Cowen, Myron, 207
Rauh, Joseph, 273, 288
Reed, Ben, 299, 300
Reinhart, Fred, 28
Rhetts, Ed, 313
Rhodes, Ivan, 12-13
Rippy, Fred, 20
Robertson, Walter, 115-116, 318
Rockefeller, Nelson, 46-49
Romulo, Carlos, 188, 191-195
Rusk, Dean, 218, 232-236, 238

and Melby, John F., 260-261, 286-287, 288
Russian-American relations. See Soviet Union; and Harriman, W. Averell
Salisbury, Harrison, 322-323
Scharfeld, Arthur, 270, 273-274
Schultheis, Fred, 110-111, 136-137, 144, 147
Schuman, Fred, 9, 18, 19
Service, John Stewart, 288, 312
Shaw, George, 305
Sipes, John, 283-284
Smith, Walter Bedell, 219-220
Smyth, Robert, 109
Soong, T. V., 139
Soviet Union:
and Chiang Kai-shek, 69
China, relations with, in 1945-46, 119-121
and Far East, 67-68
and occupation of Manchuria, 120-121
and Poland, 67
and surveillance of U.S. Embassy, 85-87
and the Vatican, 90-91
and war against Japan, 68
in World War II, 84-85
Spaso House (in Moscow), 42, 52, 64-65
Spewack, Samuel, 54
Sprouse, Phil, 172, 173
Standley, William H., 51-52
Stassen, Harold, 105-107
Stettinius, Edward, in Moscow, 88
Stuart, John Leighton, 137, 141-143, 145

Thayer, Charles, 28
Thompson, Llewellyn, 74
Thorne, Christopher, 314
Thurston, Ray, 27
Truman, Harry S., and China, White Paper on, 174

United Nations Charter Conference, and Soviet Union, 96-97, 100-104
United States Embassy in Chungking, personnel of, 117-118
United States Embassy in Moscow, World War II, 81-84, 85-88
United States, and Soviet Union, 50
United States State Department, and loyalty hearings, effects of, 315-319
University of Chicago, 7, 17-20

Venezuela, and World War II, 29-32
Vietnam, and France, 221-222
Vietnam, Melby-Erskine Mission to, 211-212, 216-225
Vietnam war, and U.S. Foreign Service, 25
Volpe, Joseph, 283-284, 302-303


Walgreen, Charles, 18
Walmsley, Newbold, 96-97
Wedemeyer, Albert, 113-114, 155-157
Welles, Sumner, 33-34, 38, 43-45
Windus, Cheathame, 323
Wold, Elinor K., 296
Wright, Quincy, 9, 19

Yalta agreements, 67-69
Yeh, George, 136, 138

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