146. Editorial Note
At a meeting of the National Security Council on March 22, Secretary Dulles reported to the Council on his Asian trip. His remarks concerning his visit to Djakarta were as follows:
“Secretary Dulles went on to point out that in the main the United States possessed more assets in the area that he visited than he had counted on. Ceylon was proving to be a strong anti-Communist area. The situation in Free Vietnam was extremely good. The newly-formed Indonesian Government (headed by Ali Sastroamidjojo) looked better than anticipated. This government had been formed actually while Secretary Dulles was in Indonesia, and he believed that perhaps what he had been saying and doing in Indonesia at this time had had some effect on the composition of the new government and the exclusion therefrom of Communist representation. At any rate, this was the view of our Ambassador.
“Secretary Dulles said that at Djakarta one encountered to the full the typical problem which was facing the United States in so many former colonial areas, namely, the problem of steering a course between the views of the colonial powers and the aspirations of these new nations. Secretary Dulles admitted that his public statements at Djakarta had angered the Dutch. Nevertheless, the Dutch High Commissioner had privately told Secretary Dulles that what the latter had said was the only thing he could have said if the area was to be saved from Communism, although the High Commissioner had publicly protested the Secretary’s remarks. Secretary Dulles insisted that it would be a tragedy if the United States should play any other role than the one he had sketched, though we must recognize the severe repercussions of such a role on our NATO allies and others.” (Memorandum of discussion by Gleason, March 23; Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, NSC Records)
Neither any message from Cumming commenting on the impact of the Secretary’s visit on the formation of the new Indonesian Government nor any other record of Dulles’ conversation with the Netherlands High Commissioner in Indonesia has been found in Department of State files.