Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, Eastern Europe, Volume XXV

256. Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation Between the Secretary of State in Washington and the Representative at the United Nations (Lodge) in New York, June 19, 1957, 11:06 a.m.¹

June 19, 1957, 11:06 a.m.

TELEPHONE CALL TO AMB LODGE

On the Hungarian business,² the Sec said while he supports L’s position about not having a GA meeting, you have to be awful careful we don’t get the monkey pinned on our back that we are in the way.³ L AGREED. The Sec said we want to be sure we don’t lobby against it in any way that will become known. L has not said to anyone he does not want a special meeting. The Sec expressed his concern because of the cable reporting L’s talk with Dixon.⁴ L said he did not mean to give the impression. The Sec said if there were a willingness to have it he would go along—the Sec assumes it is because of unwillingness that we are against it—we are conforming.⁵ We are not ourselves opposing it. L agreed and thinks a sponsors meeting is good to have in any case and then a special session may come out of it or it will come up in Sept.

[Here follows discussion of unrelated subjects.]

1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, General Telephone Conversations. Transcribed by Phyllis D. Bernau.
2. Reference is to the decision whether the United States should encourage and support the reconvocation of the Eleventh U.N. General Assembly to discuss the report of the Special Committee on Hungary of June 20. See the editorial note, supra .
3. Dulles expressed similar concern to Beam during a telephone conversation earlier in the day. (Memorandum of telephone conversation, June 19, 10:56 a.m.; Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, General Telephone Conversations)
4. In telegram 1102 from USUN, June 18, Lodge summarized a conversation he had with British Permanent Representative Dixon on the question of a possible special U.N. General Assembly session on the report of the Special Committee on Hungary. Dixon reported to Lodge that he had received a cable from the Foreign Office in London which concluded that it would be a “pity” to miss the opportunity of a special session to inform the world, particularly the Africans and Asians, of the true nature of Soviet policy in Hungary. Dixon and Lodge both agreed that they opposed a special Assembly session and Lodge stated that Dulles also felt this way. (Department of State, Central Files, 320.5764/6–1857)
5. The views of the major U.S. allies in the United Nations were not unanimous. According to memoranda of conversations between U.S. Delegation personnel and their counterparts, the French and Canadian Governments opposed resuming the Eleventh General Assembly while the Australian, British, and Italian Governments saw more advantages than disadvantages to reconvening the Assembly to discuss the special report. (Memoranda of conversation by Sisco, May 29; by Brown, June 6 and June 18; and by De Palma June 12; ibid., 320/5–2957, 320/6–657, 320/6–1857, and 320/6–1257, respectively)