157. Letter From the Representative at the United Nations (Lodge) to the Secretary of State 1

Dear Foster : I do appreciate the attention you gave to my proposal on multilateral aid. While I am sorry that I was not more convincing, I welcome your idea of finding out how much money others are willing to put into a multilateral fund.

There is one last thought which I would like to submit and then I hope not to bother you any more on this subject. It is this:

My proposal is not “phony”. What is “phony” is the attitude of the SUNFED advocates. In actual truth, (although they would not state it this way) their attitude is that a fund called “international” should be in essence financed by the United States, with no requirements for contributions by others; and with no requirements for convertibility. Merely to state such a proposal demonstrates its absurdity. Such a fund is not truly international and to say that it is, in my opinion, is “phony”. My proposal would smoke out the hypocrites and bring much needed realism into the world subject.

This is worth doing.

To set up a soundly conceived international fund is worth doing too, and would be much to the best interests of the U.S., since there are, as I said, some distinct advantages which a multilateral operation has over a bilateral one, particularly at this time. Such a fund would necessarily be small because no international fund—if it is truly international—can be large.

Sincerely yours,

Cabot L .
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 340/1–857.