Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, Southeast Asia, Volume XXII

157. Memorandum From the Secretary of State to the President¹

Washington, May 14, 1956.

SUBJECT

• Attitudes of President Sukarno of Indonesia²

President Sukarno, who has great personal charm and a keen sense of domestic politics, has been the leader of his country for 10 years. He refers constantly to “colonialism” and nationalism where Indonesian foreign relations are concerned. Dutch continued control of West New Guinea (West Irian to the Indonesians) is the focal point of his charge that colonialism persists in Indonesia. It in turn provides the fulcrum for nationalistic tendencies in domestic politics and economic attitudes.

We have maintained an attitude of neutrality on the substance of the New Guinea issue while we encourage the interested parties themselves to get together on it. I believe we must maintain this attitude. However, I noted to President Sukarno in Djakarta that we have an understanding of the problems of newly-independent countries, having fought for our own independence and assisted, since that time, other peoples who could achieve and maintain their independence. We have done that in the case of 18 nations since World War II.

There have been continuing irritants in Dutch-Indonesian relations since Indonesia declared its independence on August 17, 1945 and since it finally gained it on December 27, 1949. Most recently these have involved delayed and lengthy trials of Dutch nationals charged with subversion. Also following an abortive meeting to revise the Round Table Conference Agreement (the Agreement which was to have guided Indonesian-Dutch relations after independence), the Indonesians unilaterally abrogated that Agreement.

The Indonesian Government has not made a final decision as to that part of the Agreement dealing with debts assumed on taking over sovereignty. The Dutch fear they will renounce these debts. Ambassador Cumming believes that eventually the moderates will win out and that resumption of payments will take place. I shall³ use this opportunity with Sukarno to attempt to ameliorate the differences between the Dutch and the Indonesians.

President Sukarno, as you noted to the American Society of Newspaper Editors on April 21,⁴ referred to Paul Revere to dramatize the community of feeling about independence on the occasion of opening the Asian-African Conference at Bandung on April 18, 1955. He will undoubtedly make further mention to you of his admiration of the principles of American leaders for he has often, at home, cited Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington and others. To encourage moderation in Indonesian attitudes on colonialism and nationalism, I suggest that you might also describe the accomplishments of our earlier statesmen who exercised their influence to bring about a moderate attitude, and ultimately most friendly relations, with the British.

JFD

1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, International Series. Confidential.
2. President Sukarno arrived in Washington on May 16, for a 3-day State visit, following which he made a 14-day tour of the United States. He met with President Eisenhower at a White House luncheon given in his honor on May 16 and at a dinner that he gave in honor of President and Mrs. Eisenhower on May 18; no record has been found in Department of State files of the conversation on either of these occasions. According to telegram 1964 to The Hague, May 22 (Department of State, Central Files, 656.56D13/5–2256), the only substantive meeting during Sukarno’s visit in Washington was a May 17 discussion between Secretary Dulles and Foreign Minister Roeslan Abdulgani; see infra. The texts of statements by Vice President Nixon and President Sukarno on the latter’s arrival in Washington, remarks by Eisenhower and Sukarno at the White House luncheon on May 16, and addresses by Sukarno before a joint meeting of Congress on May 17 and before the National Press Club on May 18 are printed in Department of State Bulletin, June 4, 1956, pp. 927–939. Further documentation relating to Sukarno’s visit is in Department of State, Central File 756D.11 and ibid., Conference Files: Lot 62 D 181, CF 709.
3. The memorandum originally read “I should use.” In the source text, the typed word “should” was crossed out, and the handwritten word “shall” was written in the margin. The change was presumably made by Dulles, although the handwriting is not recognizably his. A copy of this memorandum, attached to a May 14 memorandum from Sebald to Dulles, reads “I should use.” (Ibid.)
4. For text, see Department of State Bulletin, April 30, 1956, pp. 699–706.