Office of the Historian

221. Memorandum of Conversation0

SecDel MC/113
New York, October 7, 1960, 9:30 a.m.

SECRETARY’S DELEGATION TO THE FIFTEENTH SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

New York, October 3–7, 1960

PARTICIPANTS

  • U.S.
    • The Secretary
    • G. Lewis Jones, Assistant Secretary for NEA
    • A. Guy Hope, Adviser, U.S. Delegation to UNGA
  • Iraq
    • His Excellency Hashim Jawad, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iraq

SUBJECT

  • US-Iraq Relations; Algeria

The Foreign Minister stated that he was calling to pay his respects. The Secretary expressed pleasure, saying he had been unable to get around among his colleagues at the UNGA as much as he wished and especially appreciated Mr. Jawad’s gesture.

Minister Jawad stated that he thought relations between Iraq and the United States were showing improvement, and that Iraqi public opinion now had somewhat more favorable view of the United States. The Secretary agreed that there is always some hesitation when a new Government comes to power about its motivations and reactions. He hoped our relations would continue to improve.

The Foreign Minister said that the one remaining difficulty, about which public opinion in Iraq was very strong, related to “an Arab matter”, the problem of Algeria. Mr. Jones commented that Mr. Jawad had spoken to him very emphatically about this point at a recent luncheon meeting.1 Mr. Jawad inquired whether the Secretary thought there was any prospect of progress on the Algerian problem in the present session of the General Assembly. The Secretary replied that the problem is a very difficult one. We did not know whether General De Gaulle would take any further steps along the lines of his conciliatory statement of mid-September, and there seemed some doubt that the Algerian “provisional Government” group would respond favorably even if he did. The [Page 516] Secretary explained that from our own history and experience, the American people were happier not being drawn into problems of this kind. The French were extremely sensitive about the issue and we seemed to be caught in the middle no matter how things went on the Algerian question.

Mr. Jawad, speaking of Mid-East problems in general said that while Iraq was fortunate in having some material resources, some of its neighbors were very poor and needed many things desperately. He was well aware that “the Russians are not helping those countries for innocent purposes”. Iraq understood the Soviets, he said, and knew how to deal with them. He hoped things would be better in the area eventually.

The Secretary expressed his gratitude to Mr. Jawad for his personal help in getting the indemnities for the families in the ABC case. The Foreign Minister apologized for the delay in settling the matter, and expressed his hope that the families were satisfied with the indemnification. The Secretary said one of the cases had specially tragic overtones because of the large family involved.

The Secretary expressed the full confidence of the United States Government in Ambassador Jernegan and urged the Foreign Minister to call on him and the Secretary in any problem where we can help. Mr. Jawad expressed appreciation and thanked the Secretary for his courtesy in receiving him.

  1. Source: Department of State, Secretary’s Memoranda of Conversation: Lot 64 D 199. Confidential. Approved by S on October 12. The meeting was held in the Secretary’s suite at the Waldorf Towers.↩
  2. See Document 220.↩