587. Memorandum From William
H. Brubeck of the National Security Council Staff to
President Johnson1
Attached is proposed US position for UN
Security Council debate and resolution later this month on South
Africa.
Key points we will support—
- 1.
- Appeal for clemency in South African sabotage trials against
nationalist leaders.
- 2.
- Security Council committee study of possible economic
sanctions against South Africa (but making clear no US
pre-commitment on sanctions).
Essentially, there are just minimum concessions we think must be made to
African pressures in order to win Security Council vote; our immediate
[Page 987]
purpose is to buy time
pending next year’s World Court decision on South Africa’s mandate
policy in South West Africa, and this should do it.
Attachment
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT
SUBJECT
- Security Council Meeting on Apartheid
The United Nations Security Council will probably be called into
session by the African states about mid-May to consider again the
problem of apartheid. Continuing failure of the Government of South
Africa to mitigate its discriminatory racial policies, the trials of
leading African nationalists and the completion of recommendations
on next steps by a UN expert study
group will lend impetus to demands for more far-reaching UN action against South Africa.
We expect the Council to focus on four major subjects: (1) the trials
in South Africa of several hundred people in the past year under
various South African security laws; (2) a multi-racial conference
involving the UN in South Africa on
the country’s future; (3) establishment of a committee to study
sanctions; and (4) the imposition of sanctions on South Africa in
the event the first two subjects are not satisfactorily settled.
Our objectives in the meeting will be to maintain our posture of
opposing apartheid without going so far as to invite a rupture of
our ties with South Africa and to defer a substantive decision on
the imposition of economic sanctions until close to the time (1965)
when the International Court of Justice hands down its ruling on
South Africa’s conduct of its mandate in South West Africa.
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To maintain the credibility of our anti-apartheid position, to avoid
being faced with a vote on a resolution which we could not support,
and to demonstrate our continuing concern about the need for
movement by the South African Government, we plan to take an active
lead in seeking support for a resolution containing the following
major elements:
- 1.
- an appeal to South Africa to end arrests and detentions
without charges and without trials, to exercise clemency in
the trials of African leaders, and to grant amnesty to
political prisoners who have not been guilty of common
crimes;
- 2.
- provision for UN-sponsored
educational and training programs for South Africa;
- 3.
- establishment of a committee of all Security Council
members to make a broad study of sanctions, including those
cited in the report of the UN
Expert Study Group; however, we would make clear our support
for such a study does not commit us to implement sanctions
at some future date; and
- 4.
- endorsement of the need for a multi-racial dialogue in
South Africa.
