122. Memorandum of Conversation1 2
PARTICIPANTS:
- Mohamed Karim-Lamrani, Prime Minister of Morocco
- Mekki Zailachi, Charge d’Affaires, a.i, Embassy of Morocco
- The Secretary
- Mr. James J. Blake, Country Director for Morocco
- Mr. Alec Tournayan, Interpreter
The Secretary welcomed the Prime Minister to Washington. He expressed great pleasure in meeting the Prime Minister for the first time and congratulated him on his new assignment. We were pleased, he said, that things were more stable in Morocco now. The Secretary said he looked back upon his visit to Morocco with great pleasure. It was a visit neither Mrs. Rogers nor he would ever forget.
The Prime Minister thanked the Secretary and conveyed to him His Majesty’s personal greetings. In Morocco, the Prime Minister said, His Majesty and the Moroccan Government have warm recollections of the Secretary’s visit.
The Secretary said that we were very distressed by the recent difficulties in Morocco. The President, who considered the King a close friend, spoke of him often and had been very worried, and then relieved. We were happy also that the Vice President’s visit had gone so well.
[Page 2]The Prime Minister said that he had come to Washington primarily to attend the IMF/IBRD meetings, he being also Minister of Finance, but he had sought this occasion to inform the Secretary personally of the evolution of the situation in Morocco. The events of July 10 had taken them all by surprise. The attempted coup had not been based on any doctrinal or political motives. It had not involved any open or clandestine political organization, nor had it been based on any particular ideology. It had been organized by a few high ranking officers who used their power and influence to take over a school for non-commissioned officers and to stage this abominable action. It had been aimed at everyone, right and left, political parties included, and His Majesty himself. What they would have done subsequently had they succeeded has never been determined but the savagery of their attack did not bode well for the future.
Karim-Lamrani said that world press reports had been of serious concern to Morocco. Today one should not say that all was for the best in the best of all possible worlds in Morocco. A great deal of rethinking had to take place regarding the institutions of the state, its economic and financial structure and everything affecting the education, training and employment of the Moroccan man himself. Such is the difficult mandate, the Prime Minister said, which had been given his government. In record time it had the task of straightening out a number of problems in different areas. Its work would be aimed primarily at that large segment of the Moroccan population constituting the “have nots”.
The Prime Minister emphasized that it was up to the Moroccans to reorganize themselves, plan their programs, and generate their own material and human requirements. They would need, however, the understanding and help of their friends to achieve even the minimum required. With renewed vigor and earnestness they could reach these goals rapidly, but the popular consensus must continue to support the monarchy and the person of the King. After 13 centuries of monarchy, Morocco is not prepared to accept an overnight change. The Monarchy remains the basis on which necessary programs must be established.
[Page 3]If Moroccans themselves are concerned to bring about a restoration of serenity in Morocco, the Prime Minister went on, the free world must feel the same way. Because of the political and strategic importance of Morocco, of which the United States is well aware, whatever happens in Morocco is bound to have international importance.
In conclusion, the Prime Minister said he wished to stress that Morocco had gone to work. It needed understanding, however, and also help to carry out its vast program of economic development. The Prime Minister said he was making his first trip as Prime Minister to Washington because he looked upon the United States as the prime partner of Morocco and the country most capable of understanding Morocco.
The Secretary expressed his appreciation for and concurrence in the Prime Minister’s remarks. The United States, the Secretary said, attaches great importance to its friendship and close relations with Morocco and shares the Prime Minister’s assessment of Morocco’s strategic position. The Secretary assured the Prime Minister that the United States would give careful and sympathetic consideration to specific proposals Morocco might wish to make. We feel that relations between our two countries are very good. We want them to remain very good. We are pleased at the approach taken by Morocco in promoting social and economic development which is so essential in the long run to insure the stability of the country.
In addition to the problems mentioned by the Prime Minister as facing Morocco, the Secretary said, there was the shortage of natural resources. He said he hoped that Morocco would soon find oil. A second problem, the Secretary continued, derived from the fact that in our modern world the institutions of monarchy were looked upon by some as being anachronistic.
[Page 4]The programs outlined by the Prime Minister were therefore going in the right direction, the Secretary said. They centered upon improving the situation of the people and would give the monarchy greater visibility, thereby compensating for one of the problems of a king. The Secretary noted that the King enjoyed great respect in Morocco as well as abroad.
The Prime Minister replied that the natural resource experts of today were convinced that oil would be found in Morocco. Moreover, the government was developing the mining sector and the agricultural sector. The areas served by new irrigation dams were under development and agrarian reforms were being implemented.
As to the compatibility between the Monarchy as an institution and our modern world, the Prime Minister said, whether a nation was a republic or a kingdom, in itself, meant little—what mattered was what was in it. Some monarchies were very democratic as in northern Europe. Some republics were fascist, not to cite any by name, but the socialist republics came to mind. What gave value to a system was the nature of the man leading it. Morocco was fortunate to have a king who was young and modern and close to his people. The Prime Minister concluded that the King must draw even closer to his people. His Majesty needed to be closer to the population at all levels in day to day acts as well as the acts of statesmanship. What mattered most of all was that the steps taken and measures announced be carried out in a healthy climate and with a serious attitude.
The Prime Minister, in conclusion, pointed out that he was no professional politician. He had not sought to be Prime Minister. The job had been thrust upon him. This gave him the right, he said, to impose certain conditions without which no governmental program could be implemented.
The Secretary expressed his appreciation for this opportunity to meet the Prime Minister and to have a frank discussion with him. He stressed the respect His Majesty enjoys in the [Page 5] United States, and specifically referred to President Eisenhower’s and President Nixon’s high regard for the King.
The Secretary said he was pleased to see that the Government of Morocco was concerning itself with modernizing the monarchy. Our administration, he said, did not feel that it could give advice to countries about their internal affairs; there had been too much of that in the past. Each country must be guided by its own past and tradition. We want the Prime Minister to know, the Secretary concluded, that the United States fully supports the Moroccan monarchy and its King, and we want to be as helpful to Morocco as we can.