325. Memorandum From Michael V. Forrestal of the National Security Council Staff to President Johnson 0
Appointment with Ambassador Howard P. Jones
You have scheduled a brief meeting with Ambassador Jones at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday1 just prior to his return to Djakarta. Jones has been our Ambassador to Indonesia for six and a half years. Not only is this an unusually long time, but also it spans a period during which U.S.-Indonesian relations have fluctuated from the all-time low, following our involvement in 1958 in an anti-Sukarno revolution, to the high of last summer when it looked as though we had Sukarno’s interest directed toward internal economic problems rather than foreign adventures.
In September, however, the Indonesians started their policy of “confrontation” against Malaysia, broke relations and suspended trade with Singapore. This has knocked the Indonesian stabilization program into a cocked hat; and we have temporarily given up our efforts to organize Free World assistance to the Indonesian economy. We are, however, continuing and even increasing our PL 480 sales of rice because of the food shortages which have recently developed. We are also continuing the civic action aspects of our military aid program.
Our present policy is to maintain as much contact as we can with the Indonesians and Sukarno in particular, while we try to damp down the incipient fighting between the Indonesians and the British which is developing on the North Borneo border. As part of this program, we have been alternately warning Sukarno of the dangers to his country of allowing hostilities to escalate, reminding him at the same time that any prospect for increased economic assistance from the Western World will depend upon his abandoning his policy of confrontation.
I attach a draft of a letter for you to give to Ambassador Jones, if it meets your approval.2
Ambassador Jones will probably ask for authorization to tell Sukarno orally that you are aware of President Kennedy’s hopes for a [Page 704] visit to Indonesia early in 1964, and that while you obviously cannot under present circumstance contemplate a trip to the Far East this year, you do have hopes for 1965—national and international politics permitting.
President Kennedy, at one of his last appointments, asked Ambassador Jones to stay on in Djakarta until next fall; but the Ambassador and the Department of State understand completely that you may wish to review this decision.
- Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Aides Files, McGeorge Bundy, Correspondence with Ambassadors. Confidential.↩
- December 18; see Document 326.↩
- Harriman sent President Johnson a briefing memorandum for his discussion with Jones. Attached to it was a draft personal letter from Johnson to Sukarno assuring Indonesia that U.S. policies toward it would not change and encouraging settlement of Indonesia’s dispute with Malaysia. The draft was slightly revised and signed by Johnson on December 18 and carried back by Jones to Indonesia for delivery to Sukarno. (Department of State, Central Files, POL 32–1 INDON-MALAYSIA)↩
- Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩