Office of the Historian

30. Letter From the Representative at the United Nations (Lodge) to the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs (Wilcox)1

New York, June 20, 1956.

Dear Francis: Thanks for your letter of June 15.

[Page 108]

I am afraid that my telegram of June 7 [8]2 did not make my position altogether clear, even though it seemed to me at the time that I had been somewhat repetitious about our retaining freedom of action.

When I say that we should keep the situation fluid, it means that we should not have our Embassies tell foreign governments in advance, but that we should follow the practice that we have followed ever since I have been here, notably in the case of the Korean Armistice resolution and many others, of turning the whole thing over to me when it reaches this stage to play the hand in the way which is most advantageous to the United States, working, of course, in accordance with policy directives from Washington and in close and constant consultation.

I see a very good chance that the hand could be played so as to make the Soviet Union do the dirty work and wouldn’t that be nice?

For all these reasons, I not only oppose a rigid understanding about an Eastern European seat; I would oppose any commitment on the subject at all at this stage.

This means that I would rather not have any kind of circular telegram go out.

Sincerely yours,

Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.3
  1. Source: USUN Files, IO, SC, Membership. Secret.↩
  2. Document 28.↩
  3. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩