Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume XXI, Africa

340. Memorandum From the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (Williams) to Secretary of State Rusk⁰

Washington, June 15, 1963.

SUBJECT

• Southern Rhodesian UN Resolution¹

1. It is submitted that no real purpose is served voting against subject resolution and a great deal of damage would be done by such a vote. As a matter of fact the best way to help the UK as well as the US is to abstain. Therefore, it is recommended that the US abstain.

2. A negative vote serves no real purpose.

a. It will in no way change the outcome of the voting.

b. At this point it is not going to accomplish the hoped for moderation in Afro-Asian parliamentary tactics. Our vote is not sought for, and a negative vote will neither chasten nor instruct.

c. The British would not be seriously hurt, or hurt at all, as indicated by their original request we abstain. See USUNNY 4503.

3. A negative vote would seriously damage the US.

a. Long after our statements would be forgotten, and in some areas they wouldn’t even be heard, a negative vote would be understood in Africa to indicate the US was less than sympathetic to African aspirations for majority rule. Our friendly vote on Angola in 1961 still redounds to our credit and our last negative vote on Rhodesia still haunts. Perhaps this isn’t logical but this is the way it is.

b. An anti-black African vote, and this is the way a negative vote here would inevitably be interpreted, will not ease our serious domestic civil rights situation. More and more African self-determination and Negro equality in the US are linked together.

4. If we want to help the British, and in this case they certainly seem deserving of our help, we can do so only in so far as we can influence African nationalists. The British have far more influence with white Southern Rhodesians than have we assuming we have any influence at all. A negative vote here will certainly diminish severely our ability to influence African nationals and thereby the British.

0. Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 16 RHOD/UN. Confidential. No drafting information appears on the source text.
1. On June 20, by a vote of 19 to 0 with 4 abstentions (including the United States), the Special Committee on the Situation with Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (the Committee of 24) adopted a draft resolution deploring the fact that the United Kingdom had ignored the General Assembly’s resolutions on the question, stating that this had created an “explosive situation” in Southern Rhodesia, and calling upon the United Kingdom to abrogate the 1961 Constitution and hold a new constitutional conference.