501.BD/11–46
Memorandum of Telephone Conversations, by the Director of the Office of Special Political Affairs (Hiss)
As a result of the discussion in the morning meeting in Mr. Acheson’s office I called Mr. Ross and gave him the following information.
It had been the general consensus of the discussion this morning that the United States should support both Turkey and the Netherlands for the remaining two seats on the Economic and Social Council and should, therefore, drop its support for Byelo-Russia. There was unanimity in the recognition of the strategic importance of Turkey and it was felt essential that the United States should, therefore, continue its support for Turkey. Mr. Clayton pointed out the economic importance of the Netherlands, emphasizing especially that the Netherlands could be counted on as a supporter of our important trade policy.55 A comparison of economic importance between the Netherlands and Byelo-Russia demonstrated the desirability of the Netherlands, which had just ceased to be a member of the Security Council, being elected to the Economic and Social Council. It was recognized that if we cease to continue our support of Byelo-Russia a probable consequence will be that Byelo-Russia will not be elected and this in turn would mean an unbalance as between regions. (The eastern European region was overbalanced last year because of the unexpected election of Yugoslavia as well as the anticipated election of the Ukraine. Election of the Netherlands and Turkey would mean no eastern European state elected this year. The only eastern European states which would then be on the Council for the next year would be Czechoslovakia and the U.S.S.R.) It was suggested that in as much as the eastern European region had been overrepresented to the extent of one state last year it would redress the balance to have them underrepresented to the extent of one state this year. It was, however, further recognized that Senator Austin had made a commitment to Gromyko yesterday to support Byelo-Russia. It was not clear whether this commitment had been fully complied with by our votes of yesterday or whether it represented a continuing commitment. In any event we had earlier committed ourselves to support Turkey and the Netherlands.
[Page 230]Mr. Acheson’s decision, which he wished communicated to New York, was that while the consensus of the Department’s views was that we should support Turkey and the Netherlands the effect of dropping our support for Byelo-Russia upon the Council of Foreign Ministers’ negotiations should be considered.56 In view of the fact that Senator Austin will be consulting the Secretary further on this whole subject, it was suggested that a final decision should be left to the Secretary who would naturally be in the best position to take into account all the over-all factors.
Subsequently Mr. Ross called me back and said that he was at the moment with Senator Austin who had been considering the Economic and Social Council elections situation in the light of the Department’s views as I had earlier conveyed them to Mr. Ross. Mr. Ross said that the Senator considers his commitment to Gromyko of yesterday is a continuing one and not limited simply to the ballots taken yesterday. He said that the Senator feels it would damage his relations with the Soviet Delegation for the United States forthwith to cease its support of Byelo-Russia. Consequently the Senator would like to propose to the Secretary the following procedure: The Senator would inform the Turkish, Dutch and Soviet Delegations, and other delegations also, that we had intended on the fifth vote to vote for Turkey and Byelo-Russia as we had done on the third and fourth ballots. He would then say further that we plan to continue with that program on the fifth vote when it is taken but that if another ballot or ballots were required we will in such ballots vote for Turkey and the Netherlands. Mr. Ross said the Senator felt this would put all parties concerned on notice as to our intentions.
After talking to Mr. Acheson I called Senator Austin and said Mr. Acheson had asked me to convey the Department’s views on this as follows: The Senator knows the shading of his commitment to Gromyko. In view of his feeling that a procedure of the kind he has suggested is necessary under the terms of his commitment and to preserve his relations with the Soviet Delegation, we are prepared to go along and would not object to this proposal being recommended to the Secretary by Senator Austin. However, if it were not for Senator Austin’s commitment, we would prefer to have us in the next ballot vote for Turkey and the Netherlands. The Senator said that he would convey this message to the Secretary and would talk with the Secretary about the matter.
- For documentation on this subject, see pp. 1260 ff.↩
- The Secretary of State was in New York at this time attending the current session of the Council of Foreign Ministers; see vol. ii, pp. 965 ff.↩