143. Letter From the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (Merchant) to Secretary of State for External Affairs Green1
Dear Howard: At our meeting at Montebello the other day2 you asked what our views were on the question of Outer Mongolia being admitted into the United Nations.
We have recently been reviewing not only this question, but that of Outer Mongolia’s exact status, and we have come to the same conclusion as we have before. We do not consider Outer Mongolia to be independent nor to be a genuine state. This seems to be a general view, also, since only three non-Communist countries have recognized Outer Mongolia—Burma, India, and Indonesia. We believe that admission of Outer Mongolia into the United Nations would generally [Page 270] hurt the free world position. Any marginal advantages accruing to the free world by admission of Outer Mongolia would, we believe, be far outweighed by the disadvantages of such an action.
If the United States were to support admission of Outer Mongolia to the United Nations, our position in the Far East might well be compromised by an incorrect interpretation of such an action. It might be thought that we were giving in to Communist pressure in that area. This would be particularly unfortunate in the face of continuing Communist aggression in Tibet and India.
Likewise, we are strongly of the opinion that the addition of yet another Communist representative at the United Nations, particularly at this time, would not help the free world in attaining its objectives in that organization and would actually, of course, militate against it. I need only refer you to the recent efforts of the Communist bloc as a whole to interfere with the United Nations effort in the Congo.
We have followed the course of events in Outer Mongolia with considerable interest. We have evidence, for example, that there has occurred a local resurgence of nationalism in the area, but at the same time it is clear that the Soviet Government has cracked down hard on this Mongolian sentiment and has strengthened its hold over the local government. Outer Mongolia is in reality a Communist-controlled puppet, whatever may be the nationalistic instincts of its people, and we believe that admission into the United Nations would not really be of any assistance to the Mongolians themselves. Any Mongolian Mission to the United Nations would be carefully indoctrinated, would not move outside Communist diplomatic circles, and would not be susceptible to free world suasions under present circumstances.
We have concluded, therefore, that we will oppose any effort on the part of the Soviet bloc to gain admittance into the United Nations of Outer Mongolia.
With all good wishes,
Sincerely,
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 303/7–2760. Secret. Drafted by Hubbard; cleared by Boster and White and in draft by Parsons, Willoughby, Bacon, and Hartley.↩
- A memorandum of Merchant’s July 13 conversation with Green is ibid., 303/7–1360. Merchant was in Canada as part of the U.S. Delegation to the third Canadian-U.S. Ministerial Meeting on Joint Defense, held at Montebello, Quebec, July 12–13. Documentation on this meeting is scheduled for publication in a forthcoming volume.↩
- Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩