284. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Italy1
64101. 1. Italian Chargé Terruzzi called on Under Secretary Rostow today to request US support for Italian initiative to sponsor study committee [Page 603] resolution on ChiRep. Although he said he was acting on Fanfani’s instruction, Terruzzi was quite fuzzy as to whether Italians were consulting us about wisdom of such move or informing us of decision already made.
2. After indicating Italy would again oppose Albanian resolution and possibly co-sponsor Important Question resolution Terruzzi explained Italian desire to “do something more” and their wish to obtain our support for submission of study committee resolution which would link ChiRep problem to question of universality of membership. In response Rostow’s question Terruzzi added, after search of his instructions, that he thought Italian Government had already decided to go ahead but was still most interested in US reaction.
3. Rostow commented that while we publicly supported study committee resolution last year and still recognized potential utility of this approach, we believed it would be a mistake to submit resolution this year. Our soundings showed that most countries hoped ChiRep debate would be as routine as possible primarily because of conditions on China mainland. Also clear that study committee resolution would be overwhelmingly defeated, possibly by even larger margin than last year. Thus we failed to see advantage of advancing resolution at this time and saw no point to jeopardizing future utility of study committee concept by subjecting it to sure defeat for second year.
4. Terruzzi argued study committee might be useful as way to test ChiCom attitude—i.e. were Chinese prepared to accept certain conditions which might be formulated and presented to them? Rostow noted there would be no testing of ChiComs in this fashion if resolution were not adopted, which we sure would be the case.
5. When asked what US would do if Italians proceeded to table study committee resolution, Rostow said matter had not been decided and would have to be considered by President. He personally assumed that in view of our unchanged underlying support we would probably vote in favor. He cautioned, however, that he did not wish to deal with this question at this stage.
6. Since Chargé did not seem grasp point Rostow concluded conversation by explicitly asking Terruzzi to convey following response to Rome: Our judgment is that it would be mistake for Italians to undertake ChiRep initiative this year because we considered it politically inopportune in light of Assembly attitudes, conditions in China, and certainty that resolution would be badly defeated. Second and overwhelming defeat of this measure would be unhelpful to our interests since study committee resolution could prove feasible and desirable at later time. If Italian Government were to insist on pursuing matter, we would of course give it further careful consideration. Rostow added, however, [Page 604] that he was quite certain that we would not be in position to co-sponsor such resolution.
7. Terruzzi left informal translation of illustrative resolution (see SepTel) which Italians have in mind.
8. Comment: Although we believe Belgians and some other co-sponsors of Italian initiative last year are cool to reintroduction this year, we are by no means certain we will be able to head off Italians at this late stage. Moreover, Chileans have never dropped idea and may well conclude that Italian position is sufficient to justify their precipitating issue.
9. Embassy Rome requested to ensure that Rostow’s comments accurately conveyed to Fanfani.
Embassies Santiago and Brussels requested to bring US reaction to attention of Chilean and Belgian Governments so that there no misunderstanding of our position.
Embassies Tokyo, Wellington, Bangkok, and Canberra authorized to inform Governments confidentially of our reaction.
10. GRC informed directly in Washington and New York.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, UN 6 CHICOM. Confidential; Priority. Drafted by Gleysteen; cleared by Berger, Italy Country Director Wells Stabler, and Eugene Rostow’s Special Assistant Thomas O. Enders; and approved by Deputy Assistant Secretary for IO Ward P. Allen. Sent also to Santiago, Brussels, Tokyo, Canberra, Bangkok, and Wellington. Repeated to USUN and Taipei.↩