Office of the Historian

235. Memorandum of Conversation0

SecDelMC/118
Riverdale, New York, October 6, 1960, 11:30 a.m.1

PARTICIPANTS

  • U.S.
    • J. C. Satterthwaite, Assistant Secretary
    • T. A. Cassilly
  • Guinea
    • President Sekou Toure of Guinea
    • Telli Diallo, Ambassador to United States
    • Ismael Toure, Minister of Public Works, Transportation and Communication
    • Damantang Camara, Minister of the Interior

SUBJECT

  • Congo

After welcoming the President back to the United States, Mr. Satterthwaite emphasized our full support of the United Nations in the Congo since we saw no alternative between the United Nations and chaos. Lumumba had been received in Washington by the United States Government and we had flown his delegation to the United Nations. Nevertheless, Lumumba seemed determined to curtail the United Nations role in the Congo and facilitate that of the Soviet Union. The United States believed that the African countries also were opposed to the spread of the cold war to Africa and, therefore, approved our operating through the United Nations.

President Toure observed that it was not any individual Congolese who was important but the independence and unity of the country. He insisted that the “legality” of the Congo, as established through free elections, must be respected. Although Belgian paratroopers have committed aggression in the Congo, the United Nations declares it should be neutral with respect to both the aggressors and those attacked; Guinea does not agree with this reasoning. In intervening in the Congo the United Nations has ignored the local government which invited them in in the first place. Why should this be the case in the Congo but not the case during the Suez crisis where the United Nations cooperated with the Nasser Government?

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When Mr. Satterthwaite tried to point out that the two cases were not identical, the President referred very emotionally to the extreme poverty of his country, its leaders and the members of his own family. Even though we are a poor country no one can challenge the “legitimacy” of the Guinean (and, by inference, the Congolese) Government.

Mr. Satterthwaite stressed the vital importance of the United Nations especially for the smaller countries. The President agreed and remarked that although he might seem to be harsh in his attacks on the Secretary General, Guinea was second to none in its support of the United Nations.

  1. Source: Department of State, Conference Files: Lot 64 D 559, 15th General Assembly—Memcons. Official Use Only. Drafted by Thomas A. Cassilly, Officer in Charge of Guinea, Cameroun, and Togo. The portion of the conversation concerning U.S.–Guinea relations is recorded in a separate memorandum of conversation; see Document 330.↩
  2. President Touré was attending the U.N. General Assembly; the conversation took place at his residence.↩