Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume XXI, Africa

412. Memorandum From William H. Brubeck of the National Security Council Staff to President Kennedy⁰

Washington, August 7, 1963.

SUBJECT

• South African Resolution at the United Nations

The attached State Department recommendation¹ goes somewhat beyond your position as of last week but it is probably the best we can do. To organize enough votes to abstain it to death would require your personal intervention with the Venezuelans, Norwegians and possibly the Brazilians. Nothing in the resolution is so bad as to justify this or the even more drastic alternative of casting our first veto.

Specifically we would abstain on the whole resolution unless the economic boycott provision is eliminated (which it will almost surely be). We would abstain on some rhetoric in the preamble that is inferentially critical of countries that have previously supplied arms. And we would carefully explain our understanding of the vote—that this is not Chapter 7 (mandatory) action; and that we reserve the right to ship arms for the common defense.²

WB

0. Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Countries Series, South Africa, 8/7/63-8/12/63. Confidential.
1. Attached to the source text is an August 6 memorandum from Acting Secretary Ball to the President stating that the resolution before the U.N. Security Council was more contentious than the Department believed was useful or effective, but recommending that, with one amendment, the United States should vote yes on it. Ball proposed that the U.S. Delegation be instructed to try hard to eliminate the recommendation for a boycott of all South African goods. If the boycott feature was eliminated, it should vote affirmatively on the resolution as a whole. If it was not eliminated, the United States should abstain. Attached to Ball’s memorandum is a note dated August 7 from Brubeck to Bromley Smith that reads: “The President has approved this and State has been notified.”
2. On August 7, Ambassador Yost asked for a separate vote on the paragraph of the draft resolution calling for a boycott on South African goods. The paragraph failed to receive the necessary 7 votes for adoption, failing by a vote of 5 to 0 with 6 abstentions (including the United States, the United Kingdom, and France). The vote on the amended resolution as a whole was 9 to 0, with 2 abstentions (the United Kingdom and France). For text of Security Council Resolution 181 (1963), “The Situation in South Africa Is Seriously Disturbing International Peace and Security,” see American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1963, pp. 689-690.