Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Arab-Israeli Dispute; United Arab Republic; North Africa, Volume XIII

292. Memorandum From the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (Penfield) to the Deputy Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (Murphy)¹

Washington, June 17, 1959.

SUBJECT

• Visa Application of Lamine-Debbaghine²

I regret that we cannot concur in the EUR memorandum of June 15 on this subject.³ In view of the explosive pressures on both sides of the Algerian dispute, I do not believe that we can afford to substitute for the normal objective operation of our laws and traditional practices the subjective political calculation that a given application is “more than the traffic will bear in US-French relations.”

I agree with NEA that failure to issue the visa, through whatever pretext or delay, will have a sharply adverse effect in the Asian-African world. Nor would the “suspended action” recommended by EUR settle even individual cases. If Lamine-Debbaghine’s visa application is not acted on now, he may well apply again in the autumn when the UN is in session, under far more embarrassing circumstances for us. On the other hand, it would be more damaging to refuse him a visa on the formula that it would be prejudicial to our national interest, especially since the applicant must be informed of this finding.

I am especially anxious to retain the only objective criterion we have for handling such cases in a routine manner because the Lamine-Debbaghine case is only a beginning. We have at hand for decision the first of a series of Algerian student visa applications, and visa processes have been started for a six-man delegation of the labor organization affiliated with the PGAR, invited by the AFL–CIO to its congress in San Francisco this summer.

If we abandon regulatory for political criteria in Algerian visa cases, these and subsequent applications probably will become separate matters for high-level decision within the Department, and open the U.S. to pressures on each case from the opposing sides in the Algerian dispute. Moreover, we would be hard-pressed to refute charges that we have denied, under French pressure, a privilege which we customarily extend to political exiles who seek to visit this country.

Recommendations:

I accordingly recommend that the visa application of Lamine-Debbaghine, like that of other Algerians, should be governed by normal operation of the immigration laws and regulations; i.e., that the application be refused only in the presence of explicit matter in the individual’s medical or legal record which would render him ineligible.⁴

1. Source: Department of State, AF/AFN Files: Lot 65 D 182, A–20, Visas for Non-Students. Confidential. Drafted by Porter and Stokes, initialed by Penfield, and sent to Murphy through S/S.
2. Mohamed Lamine-Debbaghine, Foreign Minister of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic.
3. Not found.
4. The source text bears the following handwritten notation by Porter: “Note Mr. Murphy decided not to act on this visa application for the time being. WP”.