219. Memorandum of a Conversation, Waldorf Towers, New York, October 7, 1960, 10 a.m.1
SecDel/MC/124
PARTICIPANTS
- The Secretary
- Mr. G. Lewis Jones, Assistant Secretary, NEA
- A. Guy Hope, Adviser to U.S. Delegation to the UNGA
- His Excellency Saeb Salaam, President of Council of Ministers, Lebanon
- His Excellency Philippe Tacla, Minister for Foreign Affairs
- His Excellency Fouad Ammoun, Secretary-General of Ministry of Foreign Affairs
- Nadim Dimechkie, Ambassador to U.S.
The Prime Minister expressed the hope that the presence at the General Assembly of so many high-ranking personalities would lead to the strengthening of the United Nations. Unlike some others, he was optimistic in this regard.
Referring to the “everlasting question” of Chinese representation, the Prime Minister thought frankly that the Western position was an equivocal one. He believed it was illogical to continue to deny adequate representation to the large population of China. The Lebanese Government continued to support the moratorium because it did not want to introduce another upsetting factor into the complex of world problems now confronting all of us.
The Secretary said the Chinese Communists have not made it any easier for the United Nations to solve the problem. They had not abided by their written agreements, had consistently failed to show willingness to accept the obligations of the UN Charter, and continued as declared aggressors. Moreover, they continued to hold five Americans as prisoners in defiance of their written undertakings. The Secretary [Page 406] told how as Governor of Massachusetts he had cooperated with the Federal Government in expressing willingness to pardon a Chinese prisoner so he could be repatriated, only to have the prisoner indicate his preference for remaining in an American jail rather than to be returned to Communist China. (The Lebanese visitors showed appreciation of the incongruity of the prisoner’s plight.) Again, the Chinese Communists continued to threaten to take Taiwan by force.
The Prime Minister said such tactics do not go with the present mood of the world, which is opposed to solutions by force.
The Secretary remarked that there were some curious factors in the United Nations set-up. Thus the sixteen new nations of Africa each had a vote, while China, with a population nearly three times that of all Africa, was only represented by one vote. The Prime Minister thought it was healthy to have the small and uncommitted nations represented so fully in the UN so they could voice their opinions on important world measures. The Secretary added that it was a tragic note that there were some two to three thousand specially skilled and experienced Chinese on Formosa whose valuable services were not available to China as a whole. They were getting older now and would be hard to replace.
[Here follows discussion of Ambassador McClintock and development and international assistance in Lebanon.]
The Prime Minister inquired whether there were any important developments expected in the General Assembly after the China issue. The Secretary responded that in the next few days he expected a Soviet effort to overrule the General Committee decision on allocating the disarmament item to Committee One in an effort to get it referred to the Plenary where the USSR could make the fullest possible propaganda exploitation of the issue. The Prime Minister thought that only in Committee could any progress be expected, and the Secretary agreed.
Otherwise, the Secretary noted, we could expect a lot more eloquence from the rostrum on many subjects. He had recently read the text of the statements by Ecuador and Peru2 and had been struck with the 100 per cent discrepancy in facts. We were a guarantor of the agreement and hoped Ecuador would soon announce more favorable developments.
[Here follows discussion of Israel and Algeria.]
The Prime Minister said he had enjoyed his talk with the Secretary and wanted to express his gratification that the United States was one Big Power which seemed always to support the United Nations [Page 407] and to be conscious of the problems of small nations. The Secretary said we valued the friendship and understanding of Lebanon and that he had been happy to see the visitors.
- Source: Washington National Records Center, RG 59, Conference Files: FRC 83–0068, CF 1767. Confidential. Drafted by Hope and approved by S on October 14. A summary of this conversation was sent to the Department in telegram 923 from USUN, October 7. (Department of State, Central Files, 301/10–760)↩
- For texts of these September 29 statements, see U.N. doc. A/PV.878.↩