89. Memorandum From Secretary of State Kissinger to President Ford, Washington, undated.1 2
THE SECRETARY OF STATE
WASHINGTON
MEMORANDUM FOR: THE PRESIDENT
From: Henry
A. Kissinger
Subject: Angola’s Application for UN Membership
Angola is renewing its bid for membership in the UN. When application was originally made in early May, we succeeded in gaining postponement when we indicated that we would veto the application. The other Security Council members supported postponement because they concluded that the question of Angola membership is a difficult one to deal with during the heat of a Presidential primary campaign.
This time, the Angolans have told the British they will press their application through to completion. The other Africans feel bound to support the application.
The operative factors in the situation are:
--If the application comes up now in the Security Council all other members (including the UK, France, Italy and Japan) will vote in favor.
--A U.S. veto will be taken as a slap at the Africans and will burden Governor Scranton’s current trip to Africa where he hopes to build on what has been achieved over the past month. A veto will also make it harder for us to round-up the black African votes we may need on such issues as Puerto Rico and Israeli suspension.
--Cuban combat troops remain in Angola and appear to be the main prop of the Neto Government. Troop withdrawals, if any, have been negligible. Abstaining in the Council and permitting Angolan membership could be read as a sign of acquiescence in continued Cuban military presence.
The following courses seem open to U.S.:
--Seeking a further postponement, perhaps to the second half of August. In my judgment, we could gain such postponement only if we assured the members of the Security Council that we will at that time abstain.
--Let the matter come up for a vote now and veto the Angolan application. We could say that we would be willing to reconsider the application once conditions change.
--We could also let the matter come up now and abstain, allowing approval of Angola’s application.
My recommendation is that we try for postponement, assuring that in the end we will abstain. We could at the same time seek from the Angolans assurances of net Cuban withdrawals and observe those withdrawals.
- Source: Department of State, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy Files, P840167–1602. Confidential; Nodis. Drafted by Helman on June 11; cleared by Habib, Schaufele, and Aherne. Printed from an uninitialed copy. A memorandum from Connor to Ford, May 11, indicates that Ford gave Scranton verbal orders to veto, with the proviso: “Veto but subject to approval by withdrawal of Cuban troops when and if withdrawal occurs.” (Ford Library, President’s Office Files, President’s Handwriting Files, Box 6, Countries-Angola) On June 23 the U.S. vetoed the admission of Angola admission to the U.N. Sherer’s statement explaining the veto is published in Department of State Bulletin, July 19, 1976, pp. 99–100.↩
- Kissinger recommended attempting to postpone Angolan admission to the United Nations.↩