Office of the Historian

267. Memorandum of Conversation1

Washington, September 9, 1963.

SUBJECT

  • The President’s Attendance at the General Assembly

PARTICIPANTS

  • The White House
    • The President
    • Mr. Bundy
    • Mr. Schlesinger
    • Mr. Sorensen (in part)
  • The Department
    • The Secretary
    • Ambassador Stevenson
    • Mr. Ball
    • Mr. Harriman
    • Mr. Cleveland, IO
    • Mr. Sisco, UNP

After a brief discussion of the pros and cons, the President decided that he would attend the Assembly and asked Ambassador Stevenson to arrange with the Secretariat to speak the first thing on Friday morning, September 20. The President felt that his presence at the Assembly would give him an opportunity to put the test ban treaty in perspective and to dispel doubts in the world that may have arisen as a result of the debate within our country over ratification. At the Secretary’s suggestion it was agreed that the President’s attendance at the General Assembly would be announced on Monday, September 16, and that this late announcement would help to avoid stimulating a huge attendance of high-level leaders at the Assembly. The President asked Ambassador Stevenson to provide Arthur Schlesinger and Ted Sorensen with any further substantive thoughts he might have for additional material for inclusion in the President’s speech.2

  1. Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Subjects Series, United Nations (General), 9/9/63–9/30/63, Box 311. Secret; Limit Distribution. Drafted by Sisco. Another copy of the memorandum gives the time of the meeting as 11:30 a.m. (Ibid.)↩
  2. President Kennedy addressed the UN General Assembly at 11 a.m. on September 20. For text of his speech, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963, pp. 693–698, or American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1963, pp. 106–113.↩