Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XXIV, Africa

503. Memorandum From Ulric Haynes of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy)¹

Washington, December 8, 1965.

McGB

Situation Report: Rhodesian Crisis

1. Most of the African governments are looking for face-saving ways to avoid complying with the December 15 deadline for a diplomatic break with the UK. The present reading indicates that the hard-line holdouts are the UAR, Tanzania, Ghana, Guinea, Congo (B) and Burundi.

2. Ball’s meeting with the UK officials continues late into the afternoon without any firm indication of the atmospherics. The most I’ve been able to hear was a second-hand quote from a UK Embassy officer: “The air is thin.”

3. In Salisbury, Smith has threatened severe retaliatory measures against the UK’s economic sanctions:

a) repatriation of Africans from Zambia and Malawi, if UK sanctions cause unemployment;

b) requiring payment in non-sterling foreign currencies for goods delivered to Zambia;

c) possible increase in the price of Rhodesian coal;

d) possible increase in railway charges to Zambia;

e) reductions of imports from the UK.

4. The latest on-the-spot report from our Congen in Salisbury indicates that “at the end of the first month of illegal independence, the regime is firmly in control and not under any obligation, as a result of internal pressure, to yet turn back.”

Rick

1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Rhodesia, Vol. I, Memos and Miscellaneous, 12/63–1/66. Confidential. A copy was sent to Komer.