Foreign Relations of the United States, 1949, The United Nations; The Western Hemisphere, Volume II

IO Flies: US/A/C.1/1804

Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. John C. Dreier, Adviser, United States Delegation to the United Nations General Assembly

secret

[New York,] November 21, 1949.

Subject: Argentine Proposal for Conciliation Between East and West

Participants:	Dr. Rodolfo Munoz,1 Argentine Delegation
	Mr. Harley Notter, United States Delegation
	Mr. John C. Dreier, United States Delegation

Mr. Notter and Mr. Dreier spoke to Mr. Munoz during the Plenary at Flushing today, giving him a reply to the proposal he had made to Mr. Noyes and Mr. Dreier last week.²

Mr. Dreier explained that the Argentine Delegation’s idea had been considered very carefully by the U.S. Delegation including Senator Austin personally. We felt that we could not see any constructive outcome for such a proposal at this time. The agenda item under which it would be introduced—namely, the charges against the US and UK by the USSR—would create considerable confusion as to whether conciliation were being proposed concerning alleged war preparations. Moreover, it was emphasized that during consultations prior to the introduction of the US–UK resolution on “Essentials of Peace”, the group in which Dr. Arce had taken part had expressed a rather strong preference for a clear-cut decision between the two resolutions. We also know that the UK would not favor the Argentine proposal and believed it would be overwhelmingly defeated. We believed that circumstances were highly unfavorable to such a move at this time, and could not support it ourselves.

Mr. Munoz said he appreciated our giving him those reasons for our position. He was not surprised at our conclusion and said that merely for us to say “no” would have been enough. He said the Argentine Delegation would not introduce the resolution in view of our request that they not do so. Mr. Dreier said we did not wish to make a request of him but merely to explain fully our reasons why we could not support their proposal. Mr. Munoz replied that he perhaps had misused the word “request” but wished us to know that they were not refraining from introducing the resolution for fear of its being defeated but merely to accommodate our views. He reiterated the opinion expressed on previous occasions that some move of this sort would, in his judgment, be useful.

Mr. Notter explained that we were anxious to avoid seeing Argentina defeated in a move of this sort and also did not wish to have a measure for conciliation needlessly presented and defeated in the General Assembly.

Mr. Munoz was assured that Senator Austin would, of course, be very happy to talk to Dr. Arce further about this should the latter so desire. Mr. Munoz expressed appreciation for this and, in conclusion, repeated that unless specific instructions to the contrary were received from Buenos Aires, his delegation would not introduce the proposed conciliation measure.

John C. Dreier

1. Dr. Rodolfo Muñoz, Vice-chairman of the Argentine Delegation; Counsellor of Embassy; Permanent Argentine Delegate to the United Nations.
2. In a memorandum of his conversation with Muñoz, November 18, Dreier reported that the Argentine Delegation felt that the United States–United Kingdom resolution did not point the way toward breaking the deadlock between East and West The Argentine Delegation therefore was anxious to introduce a proposal providing for the establishment of a conciliation committee consisting of members of the General Assembly which would consider various problems upon which the Great Powers were unable to agree. (IO Files: US/A/C.1/1783)