Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XXVII, Mainland Southeast Asia; Regional Affairs

128. Memorandum From the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Bundy) to Secretary of State Rusk¹

Washington, April 6, 1964.

SUBJECT

• Possible Invitation to Sihanouk to Visit the US (your memo of April 2)²

We feel rather strongly that an invitation to Sihanouk is not indicated at this time. No doubt it would be salutary for the President and you to talk to him in Dutch-uncle fashion, but we think the advantages of this would be more than offset by the disadvantages outlined below. Moreover, there is good reason to doubt that anything short of clear evidence of victory in Viet-Nam will cause Sihanouk to veer from his course—which we believe is grounded on his firm conviction that we are going to lose.

The principal objection to inviting Sihanouk here is that it would tend to confirm in his eyes and, perhaps more importantly, in the eyes of influential Cambodians that the course he has been following has been a wise one and even that it pays to kick Uncle Sam about. This would happen at a time when these same elements of Cambodian society are having real doubts about where Sihanoukʼs polices are leading the country. Any satisfaction which Sihanouk might derive from the invitation would at least be matched by irritation in Bangkok and Saigon. There would even be those who would try to portray the invitation as evidence that we were leaning toward a neutral solution for South Viet-Nam. Finally, I wonder about the US public reaction to inviting Sihanouk so soon after the attack on the Chancery.

A lesser but important difficulty with having Sihanouk here in the near future would be that the visit would either precede or follow his visit to France in June. Given our meager facilities for catering to the likes of Sihanouk, we would suffer by comparison. What is more serious, we would be unable to prevent unfavorable press notices and these would be certain to infuriate the Prince. He has complained bitterly about his press treatment on previous visits and seems quite unable to accept that the Government could not prevent bad notices if it wished.

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL 7 CAMB, Confidential. Drafted by Trueheart. A note on the source text reads: that “Secretary Saw.”
2. Ruskʼs April 2 memorandum, which was attached, reads: “Should we invite Sihanouk to come through the United States on his way to France in order to have a talk with the President?”