Office of the Historian

608. Note From Ulric Haynes of the National Security Council Staff to Robert W. Komer of the National Security Council Staff1

Washington, July 29, 1965.

McGB2

FYI. In response to this incredible and unprecedented request from the SAG for the transfer of three senior members of our Embassy staff,3 AF is recommending the following courses of action to the Secretary:

1)
that Ambassador Satterthwaite be immediately recalled for consultation;4
2)
that before the Ambassador’s departure he be instructed to make a stiff statement of our position to the SAG Foreign Minister;
3)
that the Secretary recommend to Dr. Weinberg, Director of the Oakridge National Laboratory, that he not go to South Africa next week to attend the opening ceremonies inaugurating the American-made research nuclear reactor.

Should the SAG resort to the extreme measure of declaring the three Embassy officers PNG, AF would recommend our immediate retaliation against three already identified members of the South African Embassy here in Washington.5

Rick
  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Africa, Union of South, Vol. II, Cables, 11/64–9/66. Secret.↩
  2. Komer crossed out the initials “RWK” and wrote “McGB” on the source text.↩
  3. In telegram 97 from Pretoria, July 28, Satterthwaite reported that Acting Foreign Secretary Naude, under instructions from the Prime Minister, had suggested that the Ambassador should have three senior members of the Embassy staff (William H. Witt, Patrick O’Sheel, and Argus Tresidder) and Consul Horace F. Byrne at Port Elizabeth transferred because the South African Government had “lost confidence in them.” (Department of State, Central Files, POL 17 US–S AFR)↩
  4. A notation in Komer’s handwriting in the margin of the source text reads. “Grrr.”↩
  5. A handwritten notation at the bottom of the source text reads: “This is the kind of problem the State Department can handle—a highly esoteric form of tit-for-tat. RWK.”↩