Office of the Historian
  1. Home
  2. Historical Documents
  3. Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XXVII, Mainland Southeast Asia; Regional Affairs
  4. Document 196

196. Memorandum of Conversation1

Manila, October 22, 1966.

SUBJECT

  • U.S. Relations with Cambodia

PARTICIPANTS

  • Foreign Secretary Narciso Ramos
  • Secretary of State Dean Rusk
  • Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs, William P. Bundy
  • Ambassador William McC. Blair, Jr.

Secretary Ramos started off the meeting by saying that he had had a message from the Philippine Ambassador in Phnom Penh who is close to Sihanouk, stating that he, the Ambassador, had been asked to convey to President Marcos a request that Marcos take up with President Johnson (this to be a Marcos initiative) Prince Sihanoukʼs desire to normalize relations with the United States. If Marcos was willing to do this, Sihanouk would inform the Philippine Ambassador of his terms. Ramos said that President Marcos has agreed to discuss this matter with President Johnson.

Secretary Rusk replied that it would be useful for President Marcos to ascertain what is in Sihanoukʼs mind, stating that of course the United States is interested in Cambodiaʼs independence and in the maintenance of its territorial integrity. The Secretary said that we would like to see Cambodia nonaligned but that we have the feeling that that isnʼt their position at the present time. Secretary Rusk said further that the United States did not wish to have diplomatic relations with Cambodia which were subject to the personal whims of Sihanouk. If Sihanouk wants to use the American Ambassador as a punching bag, we are not interested. The Secretary stated that the purpose of relations is to talk about relations and continued by saying that, of course, the United States would be glad to study anything Sihanouk suggested. The Secretary recalled that when Sihanouk had broken relations sometime ago he had suggested maintaining consular relations but that we were not interested in this. Secretary Rusk repeated that, if Sihanouk came up with anything worthwhile, we would be interested. The Secretary said that he realized that Sihanouk does not have the strength in his own country to prevent the Viet Cong from abusing Cambodiaʼs territory and that we donʼt blame him too much. The Secretary said, however, when incidents do occur he should protest to both sides and not just one.

  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL CAMB–US. Secret. Drafted by Blair and approved by S on November 21. The meeting took place at the Department of Foreign Affairs while Rusk was in Manila for the Summit Conference on Vietnam.↩