509. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in the Congo1
2402. Ref: Kinshasa 135.2 Please deliver following reply to Mobutu’s letter of July 5 to President:
“Dear Mr. President:
I have received your letter of July 5 about the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I am consulting urgently with my advisers here to determine how, within the limitations of our own resources, [Page 746] we can help your government at this difficult time. We shall communicate with you as soon as possible through my Ambassador to the Congo, Robert McBride. We are confident you will succeed in restoring order and resuming the path on which you have already embarked toward stabilization and progress in the Congo. The Congolese National Army, backed by the Congolese people, acting together under your courageous leadership will, I am sure, reestablish the calm necessary to that task.
Sincerely, Lyndon B. Johnson”
- Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1967–69, POL 23–9 THE CONGO. Confidential; Immediate; Limdis. Drafted by Schaufele; cleared by Fredericks, Walt Rostow, and Thompson of S/S; and approved by Eugene Rostow. Acting Secretary of Defense Nitze was informed. Also sent to Brussels.↩
- See Document 504.↩