514. Memorandum From the President’s Deputy Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Komer) to President Johnson1
Rhodesia becoming a US problem. The Africans in their frustration are turning increasingly to the US in their disillusionment with the UK. This will put us more and more under the gun.2
[Page 875]Nyerere of Tanzania has written you (Tab A)3 asking US support for (1) mandatory UN sanctions under Chapter VII of the Charter; and (2) a UN peace keeping force to take over the Kariba dam. He told us he wanted to fly here and discuss this at the UN and with you; now he’s dropped the idea for the moment.
Zambia’s Kaunda has also written (Tab B)4 asking for some C–130s for the emergency airlift he needs because the US/UK oil embargo led Rhodesia to cut off Zambia’s oil. We’re allotting 3 civilian DC–7s to the airlift, but reports suggest that present US/UK plans will fall far short of the demand. Pressures on us for more help will mount steadily.
There are new African calls for OAU meetings, Security Council Sessions, and Commonwealth meetings. Out of these will come further pressure on the UK, and new appeals to us. Also, if Zambia cuts itself off from Rhodesia, or if Ian Smith clamps down on Zambia, we’ll have a real mess. Airlift demands will skyrocket if we’re to get coal in and copper out. The simple fact of the matter is that Ian Smith can strangle Zambia a lot faster than Britain can strangle Smith.
My own sense is that this Rhodesia crisis is likely to get a lot worse rather than better, unless the UK can come up with something more than economic strangulation. The longer the crisis lasts, the greater the chance the UK will lose control, and the more painful the choices which will be put to us. So you might want to ask State for a full dress analysis of this gloomy prospect, and whether there isn’t some other way out which we ought to be pushing on the UK.
Ask State5
Hold off
- Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Name File, Komer Memos, Vol. II. Secret. McGeorge Bundy initialed below Komer’s signature.↩
- A December 20 note from Komer to Bundy reads as follows: “Attached is another try on Rhodesia. I realize the problem, but to my knowledge LBJ simply hasn’t been told the likely dimensions of this mess. Rick and I feel that all the evidence shows that it is getting steadily worse, not better, and will continue to do so. HMG is in a spot, caught between the Tories at home and Africans abroad, but the point is that we’re going to become the African target too shortly. So the harder we push the Brits, the better off we’ll be. Attached is best device I can think of for smoking out State.” (Ibid.)↩
- Not printed.↩
- Telegram 993 from Lusaka, December 16, transmitted the text of Kaunda’s letter; not printed.↩
- This option is checked. A handwritten note in the margin reads: “RWK: Your hunting license. MGB.”↩