Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, United Nations and General International Matters, Volume II

208. Telegram From Secretary of State to the Department of State¹

New York, October 3, 1960—11:45 p.m.

Cahto 6. Pass White House. From discussion this afternoon with Macmillan and Lord Home² it is clear British are very anxious to placate the sponsors of the 5-power resolution³ and the general sentiment in the Assembly. They believe Australian amendment⁴ would not be adopted by the Assembly and that some other method of dealing with problem of this resolution was necessary. Both Macmillan and Home felt that we should stress the last paragraph of President’s reply⁵ and even to extent of interpreting the letter as on the whole an acceptance of the idea subject to the “reasonable conditions” set forth in this reply as a willingness to meet with Khrushchev here in New York.

I made it plain that we did not favor such a meeting, that in any event although not specifically in the letter the problem of release of the two members of U.S. Air Force was essential pre-condition, as well as Soviet willingness to resume disarmament discussions in the 10-power commission.

After considerable discussion of the various ways of meeting the problem of this 5-power resolution now scheduled to be considered on Wednesday, October 5, there seemed to be general agreement in principle that the best tactic was to concentrate on President’s offer of availability of American officials, including myself, to discuss in preliminary fashion concrete measures for the reduction of tension, etc. along the lines in President’s reply.

My impression is that Macmillan and Home are so anxious to reestablish the 4-power summit meeting of Heads of Government that they would be prepared to go to considerable length to re-interpret for purposes of General Assembly approval the President’s letter in the direction of conformity with the 5-power neutral resolution. We have no intention of going along this path, but believe from tactical point of view it might be wise in either amendment to resolution or in speeches tomorrow or during debate on this item to emphasize point in President’s letter that American officials including Secretary of State are available to discuss concrete measures to reduce tension.

Would appreciate any indication of President’s views on problem of 5-power resolution which will come up for General Assembly discussion on Wednesday morning.⁶

Herter

1. Source: Washington National Records Center, RG 59, Conference Files: FRC 83–0068, CF 1768. Secret; Priority; Pass White House. Drafted by Bohlen, concurred in by Krebs and Seip, and authorized by Bohlen.
2. A memorandum of this conversation is in Department of State, Secretary’s Memoranda of Conversation: Lot 64 D 199.
3. See Document 197.
4. For text, see U.N. doc. A/L.316.
5. See Document 203.
6. Dillon telephoned Herter from Washington at 2:30 p.m., October 4, to report that the President agreed with the approach the Secretary had taken during his meeting with Macmillan and Home. A memorandum of their telephone conversation is in Department of State, Central Files, 110.11/10–460.