Office of the Historian

501.BD–Human Rights/3–2448

Memorandum by the Director of the Office of United Nations Affairs (Rusk) to the Secretary of State

[Washington,] March 26, 1948.

Mr. John Foster Dulles1 will call on the Secretary at 2:00 p. m. on Friday, March 26. He wishes to discuss the ideas contained in the attached note. It has to do with organizing further efforts within the United Nations to deal with the indirect type of aggression being perpetrated by the Soviet Union.

The Secretary may wish to keep the following points in mind in discussing the matter with Mr. Dulles:

1.
The problem which Mr. Dulles wishes to discuss is being studied in the most intensive manner in the Department. We recognize that war may not be an effective way of dealing with this particular kind of aggression and that new and bold political techniques will be required.
2.
We would greatly appreciate any further development of thoughts on specific machinery and specific proposals which Mr. Dulles might make.
3.
We have called together a number of senior officers in the Department to discuss this with Mr. Dulles after he leaves the Secretary’s office.2

[Annex]

Mr. John Foster Dulles to the Director of the Office of United Nations Affairs (Rusk)

confidential
New York, March 24, 1948.

Dear Dean: I enclose herewith two copies of a memorandum on which I hope to speak to you on the telephone later this evening.

Sincerely yours,

John Foster Dulles
  1. Lawyer; acknowledged as a Republican Party expert on foreign relations; frequent member of United States Delegations to the united Nations General Assembly and the Council of Foreign Ministers since 1945.↩
  2. The following notation by the Secretary of State appears on the source text: “I told him to talk to Mr. Rusk, who is authorized to discuss the proposition.”↩