501.BC Indonesia/11–449
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Deputy Under Secretary of State (Rusk)
| Participants: | The Netherlands Ambassador, Mr. van Kleffens |
| The Deputy Under Secretary, Mr. Rusk | |
| WE—Mr. Nolting |
Ambassador van Kleffens called and presented, the attached note1 in which the Netherlands Government expresses its appreciation of Mr. Cochran’s work on the Indonesian case.
Ambassador van Kleffens then discussed several matters of “past history”. He remarked that while he had not always seen eye to eye with us on the Indonesian problem, he felt that we had always been in agreement on the end result to be sought—namely, a stable, orderly, and independent Indonesia. He then remarked that he thought that order and stability would have been better assured had the Dutch been allowed to “complete” their last police action without interference from the Security Council.
The Ambassador did not mention our press release of yesterday2 in which we congratulated the parties, but in answer to a question from me regarding the best way to handle the item of Indonesia on the agenda of the General Assembly, he said that he judged that his government and people were not in a mood to be congratulated, and felt that a resolution by the General Assembly to congratulate the parties would be misunderstood in Holland. On the subject of New Guinea, which I raised, he said he felt that we should commence immediately to help persuade the Indonesians that New Guinea should remain under Dutch administration. I told him that we considered the Dutch position on New Guinea a reasonable one, but that perhaps we had best let things settle down a bit before working on this.
In answer to another question, Ambassador van Kleffens said that he thought the most helpful thing we could do would be to continue to impress upon the Indonesians the necessity of “putting their own house in order”.
[Page 565]I thanked Ambassador van Kleffens for his note concerning Mr. Cochran and told him that while we appreciated the difficulties that lay ahead not only in Indonesia but in Holland, we felt that his government had acted wisely and we for our part were prepared to help make the arrangements of The Hague Agreement work out in practice. I invited him to consult with us and to suggest how we might help toward this end.