348. Editorial Note

Secretary of State Herter discussed the proposed Security Council resolution on South Africa with President Eisenhower and with Andrew J. Goodpaster in several telephone conversations on March 30 and 31. A memorandum of a March 30 conversation between the Secretary and the President reads as follows:

“The President called to ask if the Secretary had spoken to Ambassador Lodge about keeping the resolution mild and the Secretary said he had called last night. The Secretary explained Lodge did not have a text but he was going to try to get it tonight. Knowing of the President’s interest, the Secretary wanted him to see it. The President said he could not get over the feeling that although we were in an entirely different position they have the right to say they want to make progress in their way. The President said if we get too tough there could be a resolution that would make us awfully red faced. The Secretary said the South Africans had implied that. The meeting this morning went well. It was not voted on but went through without incident. The Afro-Asians haven’t agreed on anything. The President said he did not want our defenses down. The Secretary said he had alerted Lodge of how the President felt and so had Wilcox. He had recommended no violence on either side in his speech. The President said he had just wanted to check up on this.” (Eisenhower Library, Herter Papers, Telephone Conversations)

On March 31, Herter informed Goodpaster of a Ceylonese-Ecuadoran draft resolution, which he thought was “surprisingly mild,” although the United States was proposing some changes. Goodpaster informed the President, who thought the resolution was “mighty tough” and suggested additonal changes. Later that day, however, the President told Herter that after talking to Henry Cabot Lodge, he understood the “difficult conditions” under which Lodge was working. He instructed Herter to call Prime Minister Macmillan and tell him the resolution was “something we will have to vote for if we can keep it to this tone.” (Memorandum of telephone conversation between Herter and Goodpaster with attached draft resolution, memorandum to Herter and Eisenhower, all dated March 31; ibid.)

On April 1, the Security Council adopted a resolution proposed by Ecuador which was similar to the earlier draft resolution although not identical with it. For text, see American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1960, pages 635–636.