Office of the Historian

175. Memorandum of Conversation1

Chamcook, New Brunswick, August 21, 1966.

SUBJECT

  • Communist China and Admission to UN

PARTICIPANTS

  • United States
    • The President
    • Ambassador W. Walton Butterworth
    • Rufus Z. Smith, Director for Relations with Canada
  • Canada
    • Prime Minister Pearson
    • Ambassador A. E. Ritchie
    • H. Basil Robinson, Assistant Under-Secretary for External Affairs
[Page 373]

(The President met with Prime Minister Pearson on the occasion of his participation in a cornerstone laying ceremony at the Roosevelt Campobello International Park on Campobello Island, New Brunswick. He was the luncheon guest of the Prime Minister at Rossmount Inn in the little town on Chamcook, N.B. The lunch was preceded by approximately an hour and a half of serious conversation in a parlor of the Inn set aside for the purpose.)

The Prime Minister commented that there appeared to be some real problems inside Communist China. The Chinese seemed to have settled the leadership question, but it appeared that the structure of the leadership is no longer quite so monolithic.

The Prime Minister asked whether the President saw any big issue coming up at the UN General Assembly other than the Chinese representation question. He went on to say that he would like to see the Chinese Communists in the United Nations where they would have to defend their position before the world, but he did not want to sell out the Chinese Nationalists. He concluded by asking whether public opinion on the question is changing in the US.

The President responded that he thought American public opinion had moderated somewhat as a result of the Fulbright hearings and the speeches of a number of professors. He thought, however, that opinion could quickly swing back, although he was not sure that would be good if one believes the UN should include those who disagree with one’s position. For that matter, he said, the Chinese Communists probably don’t want to come in, although that may be a sham argument, and he admitted there was a good deal of reason to what the Prime Minister said.

The President concluded the remarks about China by saying we are still examining the situation. He thought that the two governments should keep in close touch on the issue and that with the relationship what it is between our two countries we could always work out any differences between us.

  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, UN 6 CHICOM. Secret. Drafted by Smith; approved at the White House on August 30. The source text is labeled “Part 5 of 9.”↩