185. Telegram 1699 From the Embassy in Nigeria to the Department of State1 2
Eyes only for Acting Secretary
1. Your 23092 just received. As I leave for airport to go to Kinshasa conference in an hour, I can reply only very briefly at this time. Also, I have not yet received the parallel message to which you refer in your first paragraph.
2. However, there are several general points which I feel I must make.
A. As you appreciate, our pressures on the relief front have brought our political relations with the FMG close to the breaking point. In my judgment, the tone of this relationship will not be improved by vigorous action by this mission. Just the reverse is true: we must maintain the lowest of profiles until the irritations recently created have subsided somewhat. In particular, the kind of concerted country team approach envisaged in par 8a of your message—no matter how adroitly it was carried out—would be promptly identified as renewed U.S. pressure campaign. The result could be disastrous, for the immediate relief program and for our longer-term position here. I must repeat that we are very close to the edge here. With further provocation, the FMG are in a mood, for example, to exclude U.S. personnel altogether from the war affected area. Visits by diplomatic personnel are already effectively barred.
3. If the foregoing analysis is correct—and I believe everyone in this mission would agree that it is—then it follows that our only way of improving the Nigerian relief operation and indeed of keeping abreast of what is going on is by using the technical channels. Even these can be overloaded and I hope that with this in mind Washington requirements for detailed information can be refined as much as possible.
[Page 2]4. While it would be too much to say that nutritional situation in former enclave is reassuring, the progressively improving nutritional surveys (latest contained Lagos 1692) have certainly led me to conclusion that mass starvation is not in prospect and that feeding problem which will be with us for long time is being addressed with steadily increasing effectiveness. I am convinced that latter can only be set back by renewed effort to convince FMG of qte seriousness of problem unqte except as this can be done indirectly and through technical/medical channels.
5. For what it may be worth, the British who have much at stake here are following a policy completely consistent with foregoing.
- Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970–73, POL 1 Nigeria-US. Secret; Immediate; Eyes Only.↩
- Ambassador Trueheart believed that U.S. pressures on the relief front had bought U.S.-Nigerian relations close to the breaking point and thus the United States should maintain the lowest of profiles until the irritations recently created had subsided somewhat. He noted that the feeding problem was being addressed with increasing effectiveness.↩