Office of the Historian

501.BB Palestine/4–1848: Telegram

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

[Washington,] April 18, 1948.

Mr. Lovett: The attached draft1 is for an initial statement, provided one has to be made by Senator Austin Monday morning. The Russians have refused to forego a general debate in plenary session, hence we may have to speak.

The attached speech does not drive hard on the British because it is too early to bear down on them; we need an answer to our latest effort.

I believe this is the minimum we should say in an opening statement.

On page 9, you’ll find the paragraphs on troops2 which have been cleared by the President and Mr. Forrestal. Jack Ohly, in Forrestal’s office, later suggested informally that we insert the words “selected by [Page 830] the General Assembly” after the word “governments” in the third line from the bottom of the page.3

For the record, Mr. Elsey stated that the President had read the two paragraphs and had written on the bottom of the sheet of paper the word “approved” and had initialed it. Clark Clifford had approved the text earlier.

D[ean] R[usk]
  1. Not printed; it was prepared for delivery by Ambassador Austin before the plenary meeting on April 19 of the Second Special Session of the General Assembly and was transmitted to New York in telegram 227, April 18, 6 p. m., not printed.↩
  2. These two paragraphs read: “The United States has raised with certain other governments the question of joint responsibility for the security of a temporary trusteeship. These discussions have thus far produced no tangible result. The United States is willing to undertake its share of responsibility for the provision of police forces which are required during a truce and a temporary trusteeship, along with other members who may be selected by the General Assembly and who are willing to carry out such a task in accordance with the will of the Assembly and with the provisions of the Charter.

    “While the United States is prepared to carry its fair share of the United Nations burden involved in such a temporary trusteeship, it is not prepared to act alone in this matter. Our participation will be conditioned upon a readiness of other governments to provide similar assistance.”

    ↩
  3. The insert is to be made after the fifth from the last word in the latter paragraph of footnote 2 above.↩