Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, United Nations Affairs, Volume III

320/7–953

Memorandum by the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for United Nations Affairs (Sandifer) to the Secretary of State¹

secret

[Washington,] July 18, 1953.

• Subject:
• Eighth General Assembly: Election of President and Three Non-Permanent Members of the Security Council

Discussion:

Ambassador Lodge has suggested to you that we support Mrs. Pandit for the General Assembly presidency (Tab A, Correspondence). This question and the related Security Council elections were considered at a meeting of the Assistant Secretaries of the Geographic Bureaus with Mr. Matthews, and the recommendations given below were approved.

The Indian Embassy has indicated to the Department that Prime Minister Nehru is considering putting forward Mrs. Pandit for the General Assembly Presidency and as asked for our reaction (Tab B). Ambassador Malik (Lebanon) has informally sounded us out here and in New York on his possible candidacy. The Thai Government, in a note of June 30, 1953,² formally requested United States support for Prince Wan. We have been on notice of Prince Wan’s prospective candidacy over a period of two years.

As to the Presidency of the General Assembly, the problem is principally one of weighing the superior competence of Prince Wan as compared with Mrs. Pandit. There is general agreement here that on her record Mrs. Pandit would be unstable, unreliable and inadequate as President. The resentment in this country over the Indian position on Korea and the Chinese Communists would probably make our support of her candidacy, or of India for the Security Council, quite unpopular. Prince Wan, on the other hand, has demonstrated sobriety and political wisdom and can be counted on in crucial East-West issues. As pointed out by Ambassador Lodge, there would be some political advantage in supporting Mrs. Pandit. It might make it easier to oppose India for the Security Council. However, with Commonwealth opposition this candidacy may not prosper. The consensus here is strongly that the possible political advantage does not balance the clear liabilities involved in Mrs. Pandit as President.

Elections will be held for three Security Council seats being vacated by Pakistan, Chile and Greece. For the first—regarded as the Commonwealth seat—all Commonwealth Members, except India, favor New Zealand. However, India has just indicated its desire to run for this seat, urging the need for more Asian representation in the Council. The United Kingdom has informed us that it has advised India of its opposition to India for any Security Council seat. Particularly because of India’s position on Chinese representation, we oppose its candidacy.

Brazil and Peru are candidates for the second seat. Either would be satisfactory to us. The Latin American caucus has not yet reached a decision between them.

The greatest difficulty arises over the seat vacated by Greece. Under a 1945 arrangement, this seat was allocated to the Soviet bloc for the first election. In 1949 Yugoslavia was elected to it with our strong support; in 1951 strong American efforts succeeded after 19 ballots in electing Greece. As a gesture to the Soviets a good many countries will probably be inclined to favor a return of the seat to a satellite. There are as yet no candidates for this seat. The existing political situation, national and international, makes it unwise and undesirable to support for this post a satellite or any state which supports the seating of the Chinese Communists. Although Asia is under-represented in the Council, there are no suitable candidates from that area since the Philippines would be extremely difficult to elect and the risk of a defeat makes it unwise for us to encourage a Thai candidacy. We could not support India, Burma or Indonesia because of their Chinese representation policy. Latin American devotion to the geographic representation principle suggests that Turkey might be the most effective candidate, since it adjoins the Eastern European area.

Recommendations:

1. That we inform Thailand and other friendly governments, particularly India and Lebanon, that we will support Prince Wan if there is reasonable prospect of his election.

2. That we support New Zealand for the Commonwealth seat if, as we understand, it has the support of all Commonwealth Members except India, and that we so inform other friendly countries.

3. That we take steps to develop a Turkish candidacy for the Greek seat, approaching the Turks first, and if they agree, other key governments. We should encourage the Turks to take the lead in developing their candidacy. While giving firm support to Turkey, we should not stake United States prestige on her election or for the election of our candidates to other General Assembly posts. We should not in any event accept or support a satellite for this seat, or any state which could be expected to support the seating of the Chinese Communists. If the Turkish candidacy does not prosper our preferred alternative candidates would be the Philippines and Ethiopia.

4. That we support a Latin American country to replace Chile but defer the decision until we know the views of the Latin American countries.

5. That we support the election of India to the Trusteeship Council for which it is also a candidate. (This is an adequate counter-balance for our declining to support Mrs. Pandit and India for the Security Council. India is now a member of the Economic and Social Council.)

1. Drafted by the Officer in Charge of General Assembly Affairs (Taylor) and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for UN Affairs (Sandifer) (who was in an “Acting” capacity at this time); and cleared by the geographic bureaus (ARA—Woodward, EUR—Bonbright, NEA—Jernegan, and FE—Johnson). This memorandum was approved by Secretary Dulles on July 22.

   The recommendations herein presumably resulted from a meeting held on July 16 by the Assistant Secretaries of the bureaus or their representatives with the Deputy Under Secretary of State, H. Freeman Matthews. No record has been found of this meeting, which was called by Sandifer in a circular memorandum of July 15 to which was attached a memorandum entitled “Eighth Regular Session of the General Assembly Major Slates Problems”, neither printed (UNP files, lot 59 D 237, “Slates”).

2. Not printed.