Office of the Historian

118. Memorandum of Telephone Conversation Between the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (Harriman) and the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Hilsman)0

Washington, November 21, 1963, 11:03 a.m.

Harriman told Hilsman he had a feeling Sprouse was not a good Amb. He said he doesn’t seem to have any communication with Sihanouk at all. Harriman said he was afraid we messed things up and he was unhappy about all of this. Harriman said if this country goes communist it doesn’t make sense.

Hilsman said he had had a long conversation with Nong Kimny1 who is close to Sihanouk. Nong Kimny is saying we are paying for the Eisenhower Administration and their inability to control the agency.

Harriman said they were doing things against Sihanouk. They were doing things that looked suspicious. He said it was crudely handled.

Hilsman said that Kimny said there is not going to be a break in relations and they were not going communist. In effect, he was saying we may be back very soon to restore aid. Hilsman said he had a suspicion there is a fair chance that when negotiations begin he will say they don’t want to break relations.

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Hilsman asked Harriman if he knew Howard Riggins. He said he was on the policy planning staff. Hilsman said Howard and his wife are charming and are bilingual. He wrote a book on Ceylon. He has experience in Asian matters. More than this, he is a Quaker and has sympathy and understanding. Hilsman said the next time he had the opportunity, he wanted the Gov to meet Riggins.

Harriman said he had accepted Sprouse but got the feeling he didn’t seem to have any contact with Sihanouk at all.

Hilsman said Acheson was never satisfied with his relations with Sihanouk. He never had a talk with Sihanouk. Hilsman said he was very dissatisfied.

Harriman said he never told him that. He asked Hilsman who told him this.

Hilsman said he was very happy about his reception but unhappy that he never had a talk with Sihanouk himself. Hilsman said Forrestal was on his way to Saigon and what he would like for him to do is stop off at Phnom Penh and then have Acheson go a week or ten days later.

Harriman said that maybe Mike could do this.2

[Here follows a brief discussion of Indonesian-Malaysian relations.]

  1. Source: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Harriman Papers, Telephone Conversations. No classification marking. Transcribed in Harriman’s office.↩
  2. See footnote 2, Document 117.↩

  3. In a November 18 memorandum to McGeorge Bundy, the subject of which Forrestal called “Thoughts on the Situation in the Far East,” Forrestal informed Bundy of preliminary discussions with Acheson about a visit to Cambodia. The portion of the memorandum on Cambodia reads:

    “In Cambodia Sihanouk has been neglected by the West for the past thirteen months; and being a typical Asian leader, he is beginning to flail about. It seems to me imperative that we make some personal gesture toward him soon. If we do not, we may have to make some very much more expensive gestures to salvage the West’s position.

    “First on my list would be to send some appropriate official (or semi-official) visitors to Sihanouk fairly soon. I have mentioned the problem to Dean Acheson; and he has said that he would be happy to visit Cambodia in January provided he was not given an impossible task to perform.” (Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Meetings and Memoranda Series, Staff Memos, MV Forrestal, 11/62–11/63)

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