Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Arab-Israeli Dispute; United Arab Republic; North Africa, Volume XIII

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

Washington, December 15, 1960.

SUBJECT

• United States Vote in the General Assembly on the Algerian Question

For the past several days, the Political Committee of the United Nations has been debating the Algerian question.² The only resolution before the Committee is sponsored by 22 Afro-Asian states, and is expected to come to a vote Thursday evening, December 15. This resolution (copy attached)³ contains several features which are objectionable: It calls for a United Nations referendum to which the French strongly object on grounds that this constitutes intervention in their own internal affairs; it endorses the concept that only “two parties” (the French and the FLN) are concerned in this dispute, thereby ignoring the interests of all other Moslem and European elements of the Algerian population; and it calls the present situation in Algeria “a threat to international peace and security”, thereby opening the door to action in the United Nations under Chapter 7 of the Charter.⁴ There are some other objectionable features in the resolution of a more minor character.

The Department, therefore, recommended to the Secretary that the United States vote against this resolution. A copy of the detailed recommendations of the Department are contained in the attached telegram.⁵ The Secretary has reviewed this telegram in Paris, and this morning telephoned his approval of the recommended position. The Secretary asked that you be informed.⁶

Loy W. Henderson

1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, Dulles–Herter Series. Confidential. The source text bears notations by the President: “approved D.E.,” and by Goodpaster: “15 Dec 60 Notified State Dept G.”
2. These deliberations began December 5; see U.N. Doc. A/4660.
3. U.N. Doc. A/C.1/L.265, not printed. Page 2 bears the following handwritten notation: “If 2 paras checked above should be deleted—we would abstain. DE.” Eisenhower had checked the resolution’s 9th preambular and 4th operative paragraphs, which stated, respectively: “Taking note of the fact that the two parties concerned have accepted the right of self-determination as the basis for the solution of the Algerian problem,” and “4. Decides that a referendum shall be conducted in Algeria, organized, controlled and supervised by the United Nations, whereby the Algerian people shall freely determine the destiny of their entire country.”
4. Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter addresses action with respect to threats to the peace, breaches of the peace, and acts of aggression.
5. Tosec 5 to Paris, December 14, not printed. A copy is also in Department of State, Central Files, 320/12–1460. Herter was in Paris to attend the North Atlantic Council Ministerial meeting, December 16–18.
6. A memorandum of this telephone conversation is ibid., 751S.00/12–1560. The First Committee decided on December 15 to recommend that the General Assembly adopt the draft resolution. A record of these deliberations is in U.N. Doc. A/4660. For text of the U.S. statement on the draft resolution, see American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1960, pp. 517–520.