82. Memorandum of Conversation1
PARTICIPANTS
- Eisaku Sato, Prime Minister
- Takeo Miki, Foreign Minister
- Kenji Fukunaga, Chief Cabinet Secretary
- Takeshi Yasukawa, Director, North American Bureau, Foreign Office
- Moriyuki Motono, Prime Ministerʼs Private Secretary
- Mr. Makoto Watanabe, Interpreter
- Dean Rusk, Secretary of State
- U. Alexis Johnson, Ambassador
- William Bundy, Assistant Secretary
- Ernest K. Lindley, Special Asst. to the Secretary
- Richard I. Phillips, Deputy Asst. Sec. for Public Affairs
- J. Owen Zurhellen, Counselor of Embassy
SUBJECT
- Cambodia
The Secretary said that he had talked with Foreign Minister Miki about Cambodia and would welcome any help that the Government of Japan could give in restoring friendly relations between the U.S. and Cambodia. Prime Minister Sato said that a problem concerning Cambodia was the Mekong River aid program, of which Prek Thnot was the immediate problem. He understood that a total of 33 million dollars was required. One-third of this would be paid by Cambodia, leaving a total of 22 million dollars in foreign currency to be raised. He understood that U.S. law had changed and that U.S. help was therefore impossible. Mr. Black had proposed that Japan pay one-half of all of the foreign currency needed. This might seem like a small problem from the point of view of the U.S., but it was a difficult one for Japan. Japan needed U.S. help to get the Mekong Conference on the tracks.
The Secretary said we were puzzled as to how to proceed. The congressional action had been against the wishes of the President and the Secretary of State. This problem was definitely linked to Vietnam. The U.S. would like to see it go forward, if the other governments and international institutions concerned could do so. It is possible that there will be developments later on in Vietnam which will open the door again for the U.S., but the Secretary could not hope at this time for Congress to change its mind. We would nevertheless like to see Cambodia kept in the plan. [Page 204] If Japan could find some way to adjust on this matter, we might find some way to adjust somewhere else.
Prime Minister Sato said that what he had wanted to say was that the matter might go forward with Japan paying one-half and the United States using its good offices to get contributions for the other half from countries such as France and Australia.
The Secretary said that we should keep in close touch on this matter.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, E 11–2 MEKONG. Secret. Drafted by Zurhellen and approved in S on December 22. The meeting took place at the Japanese Prime Ministerʼs official residence.↩