Office of the Historian

225. Memorandum From the Acting Secretary of State to the President1

Washington, October 11, 1960.

SUBJECT

  • Invitation to Speak at a Celebration of the Fifteenth Anniversary of the United Nations

The Fifteenth Anniversary of the founding of the United Nations might appropriately be celebrated this year with special emphasis, calling attention to the United Nations as a world-stabilizing influence, particularly during this period of Soviet agitation and when many new states are being admitted to UN membership.

I hope that you might address an important meeting in the new Department of State auditorium during UN Week in celebration of the fifteenth anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. The meeting could be held on the afternoons of October 26, 27 or 28, or the evening of October 28. Invitations would be sent to those ambassadors accredited to the United States, and their wives, whose nations are members of the United Nations. Senior members of the United States Government would be in attendance. The occasion, incidentally, would be the first visit of the President of the United States to the new auditorium of the Department of State, which will hold an audience of eight hundred.

It seems to me of particular importance that both our friends and enemies abroad realize that the heat of the Presidential election campaign does not distract our attention from the fundamental issues of world affairs, primary among which is United States support for the United Nations and a world of peace and justice.

Mr. Khrushchev’s attempts to damage the United Nations by his attacks at the General Assembly would make your presence at the celebration still more important as a means of re-emphasizing United States support for the United Nations. The wide attention which a speech by you would attract in the nation’s press and overseas would be most desirable.

[Page 417]

If you should find it possible to accept this engagement, the Department of State will prepare and send to the White House an outline of a statement for this occasion.2

Douglas Dillon3
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 301/10–1160. Drafted in P/OPS on October 4 and cleared with Wallner and in DBM, A, and P. The source text bears the typewritten notation, “President cannot do (Gen. Goodpaster to Mr. Stoessel, 10/20/60)”.↩
  2. Herter spoke at the celebration held at the Department October 28. For text of his statement, see Department of State Bulletin, November 14, 1960, pp. 739–741. A statement by Wadsworth on the 15th anniversary of the United Nations was broadcast on October 22 during a concert by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. (Ibid., p. 742)↩
  3. Printed from a copy that bears this stamped signature.↩