Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume XX, Congo Crisis

319. Telegram From the Department of State to the Consulate in Elisabethville¹

Washington, October 27, 1962, 9:23 p.m.

391. From McGhee. Deliver following reply to Tshombe:

“I have received your letter of October 24.² As we discussed fully during my visit to Elisabethville, the United States Government has no interest in the Congo except those of the Congolese people themselves, including Katanga, and we feel that those can best be served by continuing and steady progress toward the implementation of the SYG’s Reconciliation Plan. We support all elements in the Congo who support the Plan. Under present circumstances I can only urge you to pursue this important goal with determination and greatest dispatch and to continue demonstrating your sincerity by tangible action so that the objective we all seek can be obtained through peaceful agreement and without delay.

There is one aspect of your letter to which I must take exception. The references which you make to alleged effects of reasons of internal politics on my Government’s approach to the Congo issue are so wide of the mark that I am astonished that you should have been persuaded to give them credence.”³

Rusk

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 611.70G/10–2762. Confidential; Limit Distribution. Drafted by Eisenberg and McGhee and approved by Williams and McGhee.
2. A translation was transmitted in a message from Dean received at the Department of State through CIA communications channels on October 26 and sent to the White House with a covering memorandum of October 29 from Hilsman to Bundy. (Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Congo) It was also pouched to the Department in an unnumbered telegram of October 25 from Elisabethville. (Department of State, Central Files, 611.70G/10–2562)
3. The references in the message read as follows: “We know how desirous President Kennedy has been to avoid that a military action might again be undertaken against Katanga during the period of the American elections and how much it matters that our position contribute to avoid any precipitous meeting of the Security Council and to avoidance a most difficult political situation. We are pleased that the policy we have followed as a consequence of your visit to Elisabethville may serve the cause of the President of the U.S.A. and consequently that of a great country, guarantor of the liberty of the peoples.”