Office of the Historian

119. Memorandum From the Department of State Executive Secretary (Read) to the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy)0

Washington, November 21, 1963.

SUBJECT

  • Cambodia—Late Developments

REFERENCE

  • Mr. Bromley Smith’s Telephone Call Today1

Aid

Ambassador Sprouse delivered to the Acting Foreign Secretary today the note informing the Cambodian Government of our agreement to commence bilateral conversations on the termination of American aid programs.2

Neutrality

Wire services report that Prince Norodom Sihanouk intends to relaunch his proposal of August 1962 for a conference of the Geneva Powers to guarantee the neutrality of Cambodia. The only official information on this possibility we have received so far is a telegram from our Embassy at Phnom Penh, reporting that according to the French Embassy there the Cambodian Foreign Minister intends to circulate a note today or tomorrow proposing such a conference.3 Our Embassy adds that Phnom Penh Radio this morning broadcast a report that Sihanouk is going to make such a proposal, although the Embassy has not yet received any note from the Foreign Ministry on this subject. Formulation of the Department’s position necessarily awaits study of the expected note; we saw many difficulties in agreeing to such a conference when [Page 262] originally proposed last year or in participating in an international guarantee of Cambodia’s neutrality.4

John McKisson5
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, AID (US) CAMB. Confidential. Drafted by Arzac and cleared by Koren and Hilsman.↩
  2. No record of this call has been found.↩
  3. As reported in telegram 392 from Phnom Penh, November 21. (Department of State, Central Files, AID (US) CAMB)↩
  4. Not further identified.↩
  5. Not included in this summary, but arriving at the Department at 10:55 a.m. on November 21, was telegram 394 from Phnom Penh, in which the Embassy reported on a conversation between MAAG Chief General Taber and Defense Minister Lon Nol. Lon Nol assured Taber that Cambodians were nationalists and would never become Communists. If Communist strength increased, Cambodia would take the necessary action, including perhaps “calling on the West for help.” Lon Nol also stated that Cambodians were friends of the United States. The Embassy considered Lon Nol’s professions of friendship as evidence of a reservoir of good will in FARK and reassurance that Sihanouk’s policies were beginning to cause potential opposition in the Cambodian armed forces. (Department of State, Central Files, DEF 19 US-CAMB)↩
  6. McKisson signed for Read above Read’s typed signature.↩