Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, South and Southeast Asia, Volume XV

252. Memorandum From the Operations Coordinator (O’Connor) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs (Jones)¹

Washington, February 10, 1960.

For your information or action, there is quoted below an excerpt from the preliminary and informal notes of M/OP on the OCB meeting of February 10:²

“Special Report on the Exploitation of Kerala Elections³

“Mr. Frederic Bartlett, Director, and Mr. Rogers Horgan of the Office of South Asian Affairs were present. Acting Chairman Harr (White House), complimented the Working Group on the paper which he termed ‘short, succinct and to the point.’ Mr. Bartlett proposed a revision to correct the impression that the US was able to act positively in specifically making economic assistance available to Kerala. He noted that the Government of India had a great deal of control over where in India US assistance was to be applied. There followed a discussion of the possibility of DLF loans for strengthening the new Government of Kerala.

“Mr. Harr referred to the importance of publicizing Communist misrule in Kerala. Mr. Dulles (CIA) said it was not often that we had the chance to ‘examine the books of a bankrupt concern.’ He noted the uniqueness of the Kerala situation, one of the few regions of the world in which Communist rule was overturned. Mr. Merchant, disavowing any desire to be a Cassandra, said he believed the election constituted a reprieve rather than a victory for the democratic forces to Kerala. He noted the Communist total vote and percentage vote had increased and thought one of the main lessons to be learned was that discipline, unity and hard work were required to defeat the Communists. Mr. Allen (USIA) noted the advantage of single member constituencies, as in Kerala, over proportional representation constituencies. Mr. Dulles said he was convinced that electoral laws providing for proportional representation, in effect, favored Communist and other extremist minority parties. He said he hoped to write a ‘thesis’ on this question. He believed it was to the advantage of the US to encourage electoral laws providing for single member constituencies.

“Mr. Riddleberger (ICA) referred again to the problems his agency would encounter in finding ways to advance economic assistance to the State of Kerala. [1½ lines of source text not declassified] Mr. Harr noted the report was an exploratory paper only and the individual operating agencies could take such actions as were possible to exploit the situation in Kerala.

“The Special Report was approved for transmittal to and possible action by the responsible agencies.”

Jeremiah J. O’Connor

1. Source: Department of State, S/S–OCB Files: Lot 61 D 385, India. Secret.
2. The full notes of the meeting are ibid.: Lot 62 D 430, Preliminary Notes.
3. At a meeting of the NSC Planning Board on February 2, the Board requested a working group of the OCB “to prepare a report as soon as possible on ways to exploit the situation arising out of the victory of the coalition parties in the Indian State of Kerala. The objective would be to agree on ways of spreading throughout South and Southeast Asia the failure of the Communist Government to deal with Kerala’s problems during the time it was in control.” (Memorandum from Gordon Gray, President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs, to Major General Wilton B. Persons, February 8; Eisenhower Library, Staff Secretary Records, Gordon Gray) The special report is printed as Document 254.