275. Editorial Note
Secretary of State Rusk discussed the proposed plan for Under Secretary Ball to meet with Katangan Provincial President Tshombe in Geneva in telephone conversations on August 11 and 12. He telephoned U.N. Under Secretary Ralph Bunche on August 11 at 12:50 p.m., apparently after receiving Ambassador Gullion’s report in telegram 365 from Léopoldville that Robert Gardiner had heard that Tshombe was trying to see a special U.S. representative in Geneva. (See footnote 2, Document 273) He told Bunche that this was “only a possibility” and “would only be after everything has been talked out with Adoula and if things were on the line in B’s shop and if it seemed wise to him.” Bunche said “they could not do anything with Adoula if this happened.” Rusk assured him that it “has not been done and will not be done behind their backs” and that the idea was to talk to Tshombe “on the basis of helping to get on with the job and to clear up misapprehensions on T’s part.” (Notes of conversation by Phyllis D. Bernau; Department of State, Rusk Files: Lot 72 D 192, Telephone Calls)
On August 12 at 3:55 p.m., Ball telephoned from Paris to report that he had talked by telephone with Belgian Foreign Minister Spaak, who fully approved of the proposal. At 4:10 p.m., Rusk talked with Bunche, who told him the United Nations had received a memorandum indicating that the British would cooperate only with the first part of the planned program of action on the Congo. Bunche thought this made it imperative to have further discussions at the United Nations the next day as to what Gardiner should present to Prime Minister Adoula. He also thought it would be a “grave error” for any U.S. official to see Tshombe before Gardiner had seen Adoula, since Adoula would assume the plan had been presented to Tshombe before it was presented to him; furthermore, such a U.S. approach to Tshombe would “get the UN in ‘dutch’ with the Congo Advisory Committee.” He therefore “strongly recommended” to Rusk that any meeting be deferred. At 4:35 p.m., Rusk telephoned Paris and left a message with Ball’s personal assistant Helen Hanainy that the United Nations had recommended strongly against an approach at that time. (Notes of conversations by Emory C. Swank; ibid.)