213. Memorandum of Conversation0
UNITED STATES DELEGATION TO THE MEETING OF FOREIGN MINISTERS PALAIS DES NATIONS, GENEVA, 1959
PARTICIPANTS
- The Secretary
- Foreign Minister Luns of the Netherlands
- Mr. Merchant
- Mr. Lewis
SUBJECT
- General Discussion
[Here follows discussion of other subjects.]
4) Indonesia
Mr. Luns said that Mr. Menzies of Australia had assured the Dutch of strong support in New Guinea, but he noted that the Australians can go no further in the military field than permitted by the United States. Mr. Luns then went on to say that he was worried about Indonesia’s intentions in New Guinea and the Dutch were preparing a statement [less than 1 line of source text not declassified] concerning the amount of arms which the Indonesians had acquired from Western sources. So far, the political deterrent exercised by the United States had worked, but Mr. Luns was concerned that if the Indonesians did attack there were no arrangements for the Dutch to obtain any military help from their Western allies. He urged that the United States strongly continue to exert a political deterrent. The Secretary recalled a recent Indonesian statement that they had no intention of attacking New Guinea.
Mr. Luns then turned to the question of obtaining U.S. surplus weapons for the Dutch forces. He asked the Secretary’s support in obtaining the items on the revised list which the Dutch had submitted in response to U.S. suggestions to replace the earlier list.1 Mr. Luns said the Dutch particularly wanted a tanker. He hoped that the price of the arms sold would be merely token. He would hate to have a situation develop wherein the Netherlands would have to divert funds from their NATO effort for the defense of New Guinea. He noted in this connection that there were some 18,000 Dutchmen there whom it was his duty to protect. He thought that if the Indonesians thought the West considered the island vital to defend, they would be deterred from attacking. He then remarked that there were still 2,800 Dutch left in Indonesia, but he wouldn’t be surprised if they would soon be forced to leave. The Indonesians keep saying that they would pay compensation for the properties they had taken from Dutch interests, but they did nothing. The Secretary remarked that during the consideration of our aid program, an amendment had been introduced and adopted in committee that there would be no aid supplied to countries who had confiscated private property.2 This amendment was in fact aimed at Cuba, but might well apply in the case of Indonesia. The Secretary then asked Mr. Luns for his evaluation of the new Indonesian cabinet. Mr. Luns replied that [Page 412] he preferred it to a Communist Government, but he had little confidence in Sukarno or Subandrio. He then gave a long dissertation, with examples, on how unreliable he had found the Indonesian leaders to be and how far the Dutch had gone in their attempts to get on with them. He said that the trouble was that the Dutch were to Sukarno what the Jews had been to Hitler and that therefore the whole problem was tremendously discouraging.
- Source: Department of State, Secretary’s Memoranda of Conversation: Lot 64 D 199. Secret. Drafted by Geoffrey W. Lewis, First Secretary of Embassy in Paris, and approved by Herter July 14. The meeting was held at the Villa Greta, The Foreign Ministers were meeting on the future of Germany July 13–August 5.↩
- The revised Dutch list was summarized in circular CG–78 to The Hague, August 11, (Ibid., Central Files, 756D.56/8–1159) See Supplement. Additional documentation is in Department of State, WE Files: Lot 63 D 221, Shopping List.↩
- Reference is to the Mutual Security Act of 1959, which was approved by the President on July 24 with the amendment on confiscation; for text, see 73 Stat. 246. In a memorandum to Mein of July 24, Moore summarized this matter. (Department of State, Central Files, SPA Files: Lot 62 D 409, Netherlands)↩