Office of the Historian

400. Memorandum of Conversation1

Washington, October 10, 1966.

SUBJECT

  • United Nations Problems

PARTICIPANTS

  • U.S.
    • The Secretary
    • William C. Foster—ACDA
    • Ambassador Llewellyn Thompson
    • Governor Harriman
    • John M. Leddy-EUR
    • Malcolm Tonn—SOV
  • U.S.S.R.
    • Foreign Minister Gromyko
    • Soviet Ambassador Antoliy Dobrynin
    • Alexander I. Zinchunk, Minister-Counselor, Soviet Embassy
    • Counselor of Embassy Vorontosov
    • Ivan I. Ippolitov, Aide to Gromyko

The Secretary asked Mr. Gromyko if he had given any thought to the problems we faced in the United Nations in view of the expansion of membership far beyond our original expectations when we worked out the Charter. Clearly, some way has to be found to prevent the small nations, whose financial participation in United Nations operations was minimal, from assuming a dominating role. One possible solution might be a weighted vote scheme. Another which particularly intrigued the Secretary was to make the UN budget subject to Security Council recommendation but without a veto. Mr. Gromyko said that the Soviet Union would readily support the Security Council idea but did not comment on the veto point.2

  1. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Central Files 1964–66, UN 6. Confidential; Exdis. Drafted by Toon on October 18 and cleared in S and S/S on October 19.↩
  2. In an October 17 memorandum to Goldberg, Sisco reported that Rusk had told him that during a private discussion following this talk Gromyko had indicated “the likelihood of a Soviet voluntary contribution.” (Ibid., S/S Files: Lot 76 D 435)↩