193. Editorial Note
On November 15, Cuba introduced in the General Assembly a draft resolution, which was subsequently twice revised, dealing with the issue of deportations. The United States supported A/3357/Rev.2 despite a reference to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Operative paragraph 2 of the draft, as amended, urged the Soviet Union and Hungary to cease deportation of Hungarian citizens.
Ceylon, India, and Indonesia also introduced a draft resolution on forcible deportations on November 19, which was revised three times. (U.N. doc. A/3368/Rev.3) This resolution urged Hungary to accede to the Secretary-General’s request to allow observers to enter Hungary in order to report on the issue of forcible deportation.
The Department of State view was that the United States Delegation should not lobby too strongly for passage, but that a U.S. vote in favor would serve to secure Asian cooperation. Some Latin American delegations and some members of the United States Delegation had reservations about the Asian resolution in that, unlike the Cuban proposal, it did not accept as fact the information about the Hungarian deportations. But since the overriding consideration was the desire to get observers into Hungary, a positive vote was considered advantageous. The full positions of the United States Delegation to the Eleventh Session of the General Assembly are in the minutes of the third meeting of the delegation, US/A/M/(SR)/52, November 26; Department of State, IO Master Files.
In the course of the debate in the General Assembly on the Cuban draft resolution on November 19, the Hungarian Representative (Horvath) bitterly castigated the “regrettable role played by the Radio Free Europe and Voice of America broadcasts.” (A/PV.582, p. 105) Ambassador Lodge responded:
“As regards the statement that we sought to give the impression that there would be United States military help in Hungary, I assert on the very highest authority—and this has been gone into very thoroughly—that no one has ever been incited to rebellion by the United States in any way, either by radio broadcasts or any other way.” (A/PV.583, p. 117)
On November 21, both the Cuban and the Asian resolutions on deportations were adopted by substantial votes, but Hungary and the Soviet Union opposed in each instance. In addition to Resolutions 1127(XI) and 1128(XI), a third resolution was passed that day dealing with refugee relief. (1129(XI)) For text of these resolutions, see U.N. doc. A/3572, page 63.