157. Memorandum of Conference With President Eisenhower0
OTHERS PRESENT
- Secretaries Herter, Dillon, Anderson, Dr. Ralph Reid,1 General Goodpaster
[Here follows discussion of unrelated subjects.]
Mr. Herter then raised the question of need for funds for operations in the Congo. He said it is anybody’s guess as to what the total need will be. Mr. Dillon said these funds apparently must come from the contingency fund, which is now set by the Congress at $150 million for the year, of which $20 million has already been committed for Chile. A very broad estimate of overall expenditures would be in the order of $200 million for the total operations in the Congo, including troop pay, technicians, and other activities. Our share may be somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million. The President said he saw nothing to do but to go to the Congress and ask to have the contingency fund increased by $100 million, earmarking it for the Congo, so as not to invite others to try to get these funds. Mr. Reid said this is a concern which Budget has—that if the funds were not used for the Congo, others would try to get them. At the same time we do not want to give the Congo Government any claim that the money is “theirs.” The President thought that a provision that the President must find the expenditures necessary in the U.S. interest in each case would be helpful. He would support a request for the $100 million for special needs (not necessarily limited to the Congo, although privately intended almost entirely therefor). He does not simply want to raise the ante of requests all around.
The President observed that in the last twelve months the world has developed a kind of ferment greater than he could remember in recent times. The Communists are trying to take control of this, and have succeeded to the extent that students in many cases are now saying that the Communists are thinking of the common man while the United States is dedicated to supporting outmoded regimes.
Secretary Anderson, referring to the anticipated costs of operations in the Congo, said that we want to push the Soviets very hard to make them carry a fair and full share of the burden. The President said he would like to see the Soviets called on to put in just as much as we do. Mr. Herter said that Hammarskjold is trying to keep the Congo expenditures within the structure of his regular budget system and [Page 378] allocation of national contributions. Mr. Dillon observed that the Soviets are getting themselves into the position where they are obstructing and opposing the United Nations with regard to activity in the Congo.
[Here follows discussion of unrelated subjects.]