Foreign Relations of the United States, 1949, The Far East and Australasia, Volume VII, Part 2

890.20/6–649

Memorandum by the Director of the Office of Near Eastern Affairs (Satterthwaite) to the Acting Secretary of State ¹

secret

[Washington,] June 6, 1949.

Subject: Suggested Attacks on Power Bloc Theory

One of the most serious obstacles to the achieving of the orientation of the governments and peoples of South Asia toward the United States and the western democracies is the wide-spread concept in that area that the United States and the USSR are respectively heads of clearly defined power blocs, that there is little difference between the fundamental objectives of the blocs, and that the role of South Asia should be the creation of a third “force” to act as mediator between the two blocs already existing. Most articulate exponent of this concept is Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India whose great personal prestige in the area provides millions of unquestioning followers. The new Indian Ambassador in Washington, Madame Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, the Prime Minister’s sister, is supporting the same point of view in the numerous public addresses which she is making throughout the United States. Since the recent decision of India to remain in the British Commonwealth there have been indications that one objective in so doing might be the persuasion of the Commonwealth members to join the third “neutral force” leading to a virtual isolation of the two “aggressive blocs” led by the US and the USSR.

The American Ambassador in New Delhi, Mr. Loy W. Henderson, has repeatedly attacked this theory along the lines that cooperation among nations for the purpose of frustrating aggressive tendencies of certain countries or groups of countries does not constitute the formation of a power bloc and that the United States is not in fact a member of any such bloc but stands rather for mutual understanding and collaboration within the framework of the United Nations of all countries genuinely devoted to the furtherance of world peace. The Ambassador has been handicapped in the exposition of this doctrine by the tendency among even American authors to write of the “two power blocs” in the world. He has, therefore, recommended that a high official of our Government in the immediate future attempt to explode from a platform commanding world attention the theory of two antithetical power blocs.

Although it is recognized that numerous general policy pronouncements have been made in the past emphasizing US confidence in the UN rather than in power blocs, because of the value that a clear restatement of this point would have in American relations with countries of its area, NEA recommends that serious consideration be given to implementing Ambassador Henderson’s recommendation at the earliest appropriate opportunity either by the Secretary of State or by the President.²

For your information there is attached to this Memorandum a two-paragraph excerpt on this subject from an address made by Ambassador Henderson before the Calcutta Rotary Club on January 13, 1949.³

1. Under Secretary of State Webb; the Secretary of State was in Paris at a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers.
2. The Deputy Under Secretary of State (Rusk) concurred and agreed to send the recommendation to the Director of the Office of Public Affairs (Russell) for inclusion in an appropriate speech.
3. Not printed.