Office of the Historian

359. Memorandum From the Department of State Executive Secretary (Battle) to the Bureau of African Affairs and the Bureau of European Affairs0

Washington, May 4, 1962.

For your information, the following is an excerpt from a Memorandum of Conversation between the President and Ambassador Adlai Stevenson on May 2:

The Azores. The President said that in the nature of things the two issues—Azores and Angola—cannot be separated because Portugal will not permit them to be separated. The Ambassador said that, since the Azores were important not only to American security but to NATO as a whole, he felt that more of an effort should be made to seek the cooperation of the NATO countries, as well as Brazil, in bringing pressure on Portugal. He reported that he had talked to Macmillan along these lines, that Macmillan had said that Britain would be glad to cooperate to this end, and that Sir Patrick Dean was ready to do anything he could.

The Acheson memorandum was discussed.1 With regard to Acheson’s recommendation that the US not participate in drafting any more resolutions on Angola, the Ambassador said that American participation was essential in order to moderate the resolution; without American participation, any resolution on Angola would be much more extreme. Acheson’s recommendation that aid to Angolan nationalists be stopped was not discussed.

[Page 560]

Action: Schlesinger to get a precise statement of Ambassador Stevenson’s views as to how he recommends that we proceed.

ESL2
  1. Source: Department of State, AF/AFC Files: Lot 65 D 189, Lisbon Talks. Secret. A copy was sent to the Bureau of International Organization Affairs.↩
  2. The April 25 memorandum, prepared by former Secretary of State Dean Acheson at Secretary Rusk’s request, urged that the United States make a determined effort to create a more favorable climate for renewal of the Azores Base Agreement, which was due to expire at the end of 1962. (Kennedy Library, Cleveland Papers, Azores, 4/62-6/62)↩
  3. Deputy Executive Secretary Edward S. Little initialed for Battle above Battle’s typed signature.↩