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Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State1
I spoke alone to Prince Wan, asking whether he would like again to be a candidate for the Presidency of the United Nations Assembly at the next session. I said that if that were the case, I thought we might this year get in the position to give him support.
He indicated pleasure at my statement and said that he was thinking of the matter, but did not want to risk his candidacy if it was likely to fail. He thought that much would depend on whether the Latin American countries would support him or wanted to have a candidate of their own. I said that I thought he was wise not to run unless he had a good chance of success. I said that I assumed most of the West European and British Commonwealth countries had been lined up for the U.K. [Netherlands?], and that for him to win he would have to have the bulk of the Latin American votes and the Arab States.
Prince Wan said he thought he could find out whether or not the Latinos would support him or would put forward their own candidate. I asked him to let us know after he had made this exploration.
- Secretary Dulles sent copies of this memorandum to the Under Secretary of State (Smith), the Deputy Under Secretary (Murphy), and Assistant Secretaries Key (UNA), Merchant (EUR), Holland (ARA), and Robertson (FE). Dulles drafted the memorandum himself.↩