Office of the Historian

105. Telegram From the Department of State to the Consulate at Elisabethville0

June 28, 1960, 8:23 p.m.

47. Urtel 67.1 Concur your suggestion have frank talk with Tshombe urging unity of Congo and impressing him with seriousness with which we regard this question. You should make every effort obtain assurances in advance from Tshombe that you will not be personally embarrassed by public request for U.S. aid during ceremony June 30.

If unable to obtain such assurances will leave decision your attendance to your judgment. If however you attend suggest inadvisability your walking out unless direct request for U.S. aid for independent Katanga is made in spite of your representations.2

Herter
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 755A.02/6–2860. Confidential; Niact. Drafted by Wight and Arthur H. Woodruff of the Office of Middle and Southern African Affairs and approved by Satterthwaite. Repeated to Léopoldville and Brussels.↩
  2. In telegram 67, June 28, Canup stated that he would absent himself from the Assembly and suggested that he should warn Tshombe that he would have to walk out of the June 30 ceremony proclaiming Congo independence if a plea was made for U.S. aid to an independent Katanga. (Ibid.)↩
  3. Telegram 68 from Elisabethville, June 30, reported that Canup met with Tshombe, who claimed to have issued a statement denying that Katanga was about to secede. Canup did not attend the June 30 special session of the Assembly, which, contrary to expectation, did not consider the question of Katangan independence. (Ibid., 755A.02/6–3060)↩