301. Memorandum of Conversation0

SecDel/MC/60

PARTICIPANTS

  • U.S.
    • The President
    • Secretary of State Herter
    • General Goodpaster
    • J.C. Satterthwaite
  • Ghana
    • President Kwame Nkrumah
    • Ambassador Halm

SUBJECT

  • President Nkrumah’s call on the President

After an exchange of amenities in which the President expressed his pleasure at seeing Mr. Nkrumah again, Mr. Nkrumah thanked the President for all the assistance he had given Ghana toward the realization of the Volta project. However, he added, there were still difficulties involving the question of rates.2 All could be solved, he thought, with an additional loan of ten million pounds and he requested the President’s assistance. After Secretary Herter explained some of the difficulties the President said that we do indeed wish to work this out, adding that he has known of no country where there has been a continued excess of power.

[Page 662]

The conversation turned to the Congo with the President requesting Mr. Nkrumah’s views on the crisis prevailing there. Mr. Nkrumah said that in his view the problems of the Congo were not insoluble. They must however be worked out through the UN. If the UN fails, all small nations are finished.

To this the President remarked that our whole policy is to work through the UN as he explained in his speech this morning.3 In his speech he had been careful not to place the problem on what he described as a bi-polar basis. On the contrary, our policy is to solve problems through the UN even when we ourselves would prefer them worked out in another way.

The President spoke highly of Secretary General Hammarskjold and praised him for his great patience, a virtue of which he said he did not have an abundance. Mr. Nkrumah said he held Hammarskjold in equally high esteem and noted that he has twice visited Accra.

At this point Secretary Herter remarked to Mr. Nkrumah that he thought the latter could do a great deal with Guinea which is tending to get off the road. The President supported this suggestion strongly. Mr. Nkrumah did not reply in detail except to remark that he had this very much in mind.

As the conversation turned to Mr. Khrushchev Mr. Nkrumah remarked that an appointment had been fixed for him to call on Khrushchev yesterday at 5:00 p.m. He had however not accepted this appointment (in fact he did not arrive at Idlewild until 7:15 p.m. yesterday) as he wished to call on President Eisenhower first.

The President then reminisced most interestingly of his experiences as Supreme Commander during the war in which he had serving under him such varied forces as the British, the French and the underground Belgian and Netherlands forces. From this he learned that peoples differing widely from each other could get along together and he wished that everyone could have a similar experience. As he was arriving at the UN building this morning the crowds shouted, “Give ‘em hell, Ike, give ‘em hell.” But what do we gain by giving them hell, he asked? Rather each country is really dependent on every other.

At this point Secretary Herter remarked that the Soviet Delegation was requesting the General Committee to inscribe an item on the General Assembly agenda entitled “Situation in the Congo”. The Secretary explained that we were opposed to inscribing this item for the reason that this problem had just been thoroughly discussed at the special session of the GA, that it was one which in any event should [Page 663] first be taken up through the Security Council if there was need for it to be discussed further, and that only then should it again be referred to the GA.

The conversation reverted to the President’s speech this morning, with the President remarking that he was most enthusiastic of all over his fifth point recommending UN aid for education in Africa. He noted the need for furnishing teachers and schools for use in Africa as well as for sending African students abroad to study.

Referring again to the question of the UN, the President said he would be interested in the tune which the Soviet Delegation adopts at this Assembly. The U.S. Delegation has but one aim—to press forward with all other delegations.

As the conversation drew to a close Mr. Hagerty came in with the Ghanaian Press Officer to receive guidance on what they should say to the press. After this was received Mr. Nkrumah spoke briefly of the situation between the Mali Federation and Senegal,4 explaining the steps he had taken not only with the leaders of these two countries but with Houphouet-Boigny of the Ivory Coast to ensure a peaceful solution.

At the conclusion of the interview, the President accompanied Mr. Nkrumah to the elevator in order that photographs might be taken by the numerous photographers awaiting them there.

  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, DDE Diaries. Confidential; Limit Distribution. Drafted by Satterthwaite.
  2. The conversation took place in the President’s suite at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel; he was in New York to address the U.N. General Assembly.
  3. Negotiations for a power rate agreement between Ghana and the Valco aluminum consortium were in progress; U.S. and IBRD financing was contingent on an agreement. A letter of September 19 from Eisenhower to Nkrumah stated that the U.S. Government would continue to follow the negotiations closely. (Department of State, Central Files, 845J.2614/9–1960)
  4. See Document 34.
  5. Senegal seceded from the Mali Federation on August 20; see Document 75.