789.13/4–2351
Memorandum by the Secretary of State to the President
Subject: Call by the Prime Minister of Afghanistan, His Royal Highness Sardar Shah Mahmud Khan, on April 24, 1951
The Prime Minister previously called upon you on August 8, 1947. Then and subsequently Afghanistan has sought US aid in efforts toward social and economic progress. US–Afghan relations have been increasingly cordial and the US raised its diplomatic mission in Kabul from a Legation to an Embassy in 1948.1 Numerous American educators and technical experts and some private firms have worked in Afghanistan and the number of Afghan students in the US has increased. An Export–Import Bank credit of $21 million has been advanced to supplement equivalent and earlier Afghan outlays for the construction of roads, dams and irrigation projects. The American firm of Morrison–Knudson is currently engaged in developing the resources of the Helmand River in southwest Afghanistan.
Throughout the Prime Minister’s tenure of office, the government has been stable and has resisted Communist influence, notwithstanding the country’s vulnerable geographic and economic position. There have been indications recently of unrest in Afghanistan which might [Page 1965] cause some Cabinet shifts, possibly affecting the Prime Minister; but we do not expect this to result in any diminished stability of the government.
Afghanistan has contributed to our objective of promoting stable conditions in South Asia by cooperating with an international technical commission established through US good offices to study a 75-year old boundary-water dispute with Iran.2 Our efforts to promote amicable bilateral negotiations with respect to differences concerning the tribes along the Afghan–Pakistan border, a local issue which could endanger regional security, have not been successful. We still hope, however, to encourage moderate Afghan elements, of whom the Prime Minister is a representative, to bring about a settlement of this serious issue.
The Prime Minister may express Afghanistan’s interest in obtaining US technical, economic and military aid. While you may wish to indicate the limitations of the ability of the US to furnish military assistance, it appears suitable for you to stress our continuing reliance on the UN and its individual members to promote collective security and to state that, following the successful utilization of present financial and technical aid, we should be able to give sympathetic consideration to further Afghan needs of this kind.
The Prime Minister will be accompanied by the Minister Chargé d’Affaires of Afghanistan, Abdul Hamid Aziz.
The Prime Minister may be addressed as Mr. Prime Minister or as Your Royal Highness.
- For documentation on the raising of the U.S. Legation in Afghanistan to the status of Embassy, see Foreign Relations, 1948, vol. v, Part 1, p. 488.↩
- See the editorial note on the interest of the United States in resolving the dispute between Afghanistan and Iran regarding distribution of the waters of the Helmand River, Foreign Relations, 1950, vol. v, p. 1459.↩