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The armistice effort in Korea also taught the following lessons:
Never weaken your pressure when the enemy sues for [an] armistice. Increase it.
Armistice conferences should be brief ... to allow ... talks to become protracted is to indicate weakness on your part. This encourages your Communist opponents.
The site at which armistice talks are held should be outside the area of conflict.
Never concede anything to the Communists for nothing, merely to make progress.[786]
[786] Ibid., pp. 166–173, passim.
Possibly no one had more first-hand experience in negotiating with the enemy in the Korean War than Colonel James C. Murray, the Marine Corps staff officer who was involved in the truce talks from 8 July 1951 to 27 July 1953. In these two years he served as liaison officer between the delegations of the two sides and participated actively in meetings. On three different occasions he negotiated the truce line which was to separate UNC and Communist forces. In July 1953, as Senior Liaison Officer, he was in charge of the UNC staff group that determined the final line of demarcation. He has noted that Communist rationalizations readily disregard whatever facts or logic which do not fit their purpose, no matter how inconsistent.
While customarily ignoring all restrictions of the Geneva Convention in dealing with prisoners, for example, when it was expedient to their interests the Communists would then argue for an incredibly narrow interpretation of the Convention’s provisions. Declared Colonel Murray: “Having come to the conference table only because they were near defeat, the Communists were prepared from the very first to make the most of the negotiations to create ... a ‘climate of victory’.”[787] This accounts for their concern with even the smallest detail of “stage setting,” for maintaining “face,” and for practical advantages from negotiating conditions, such as the physical setting of the truce talk site.
[787] Col J. C. Murray, “Prisoner Issue in the Korean Armistice Negotiations,” Marine Corps Gazette, v. 39, no. 9 (Sep 55), p. 30.