263. Record of the Secretary of State’s Staff Meeting, Department of State, Washington, December 23, 1960, 9:15 a.m.1
[Here follows discussion of items 1, “Intelligence,” and 2, “Sprague Committee.”]
3. UN General Assembly
Mr. Wilcox reviewed briefly his impressions of the General Assembly. Although it had not been a great success for us, it could have been worse. The “maladjustments” created at the beginning of the session by Khrushchev never quite wore off.
One problem was that our NATO partners were not consistent in their positions on items of interest to us, whereas the Communists were united. Also, it is apparent that we need to steady procedures in the UN on rules, instrumentalities, etc.
We should do more advanced planning and attempt to obtain greater cooperation in achieving our objectives from our partners. We should sit down with our NATO Allies and speak frankly to them, notably concerning colonial issues.
Mr. Wilcox said that we should no longer attempt to change detailed wording of resolutions when the texts do not please us entirely; the total impact of the resolution is what should concern us. Mr. Wilcox said that the past session demonstrated that we cannot afford the luxury of non-expert delegations in the future.
With regard to the Congo, Hammarskjold had told Mr. Wilcox that he was just as pleased that the Western resolution on the Congo2 had not passed. He feels his hands are freer now than they would have been if the resolution passed with a small margin.
[Here follow discussion of items 4, “Economic Affairs,” 5, “Africa,” 6, “US-German Financial Negotiations,” 7, “Portugese Vote,” 8, “U/IGC,” and 9, “Laos”; an attendance list; and a list of materials used during discussion of item 1.]