140. Memorandum From the Secretary of State to the President1
SUBJECT
- Invitation of President Sukarno of Indonesia for a State Visit
As the leader and personification of his people’s struggle for independence, President Sukarno occupies a position of unique power and influence in Indonesia, the largest and most populous nation of Southeast Asia. He has often expressed a desire to visit the United States and was very hospitable to Vice President Nixon in 1953 when he visited Indonesia.
Neither President Sukarno nor any other high-ranking Indonesian has ever been accorded state or official visit courtesies by the United States. President Sukarno speaks of familiarity with important American writings such as those of Lincoln, Jefferson, and Madison, but he has no first-hand familiarity with America (nor with any European country). His lifetime efforts to separate Indonesia from Dutch political and economic influence have biased his attitude toward many aspects of Western economic and political development.
President Sukarno is expected to continue to exercise an important, if not decisive, role in determining the internal structure and political orientation of the developing Indonesian state. I believe that we may broaden his outlook and increase his understanding by a visit to the United States.
I recommend, therefore, that you authorize me to invite President Sukarno to visit the United States in May of 1956, planning on the dates of May 16–19 for the Washington period.2
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 756D.11/1–2756. Confidential.↩
- Approved by Eisenhower on February 28. Although the initials on the source text are not in the President’s handwriting, an attached memorandum of February 28 by Barnes states that Goodpaster had informed him that morning of the President’s approval.↩
- Printed from a copy that bears this stamped signature.↩