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

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

Washington, July 28, 1959.

SUBJECT

• Communist Chinese Representation at the United Nations

At last year’s General Assembly the vote on continuing the moratorium, i.e., refusing to consider the question of seating the Chinese Communists, was carried by 44 in favor, 28 against and 9 abstentions. The breakdown of the vote is attached.²

While we have not as yet made any general approach to United Nations members soliciting support for our position at the coming meeting of the General Assembly we believe that the vote this year will not vary much from that of last year. We already have assurance that the U.K. will again support us on this issue and also have assurance that Greece, which abstained last year because of Cyprus, will vote with us this fall.

We cannot yet tell whether Tibet will cause any actual shift in the voting lineup. We doubt that it will, but we are certain that it will have a restraining effect on countries which might otherwise have been tempted to move toward the Chinese Communist position.

Nevertheless there are a few weak spots in our position as compared to last year. Ethiopia, which has supported us in the past, although last year only with some hesitation, may well abstain or vote against us this year as a result of the Emperor’s trip to the Soviet Union. In addition there have been some indications of a softening in the Cuban attitude toward the Chinese Communists. What they will finally decide to do cannot be foretold. A change in the Cuban attitude would undoubtedly influence certain other Latin American countries, such as Venezuela and Mexico where some restiveness on this issue has been noted previously.

On the optimistic side Libya has recognized the Republic of China since last year and may possibly be persuaded to change their abstention to a favorable vote. We are also attempting once again to change the Irish position to one of support or at least abstention although we are not too sanguine about success.

Douglas Dillon

1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, Administration Series, Dillon, C. Douglas. Confidential. On July 24, Wilcox and Parsons sent Dillon a memorandum on Chinese representation at the 14th General Assembly. Much of this information was incorporated in Dillon’s memorandum to Eisenhower. (Department of State, Central Files, 310.2/7–2459)
2. Not printed, but see infra.