IO Files: US/A/293

Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Deputy Director of the Office of Special Political Affairs (Sandifer)

confidential

Council Slates

Mr. Johnson1 said that Gromyko was adamant in his insistence on Ukraine for the Security Council. Gromyko said flatly that Czechoslovakia would not take the post. Mr. Johnson thought that if we are to continue to support Czechoslovakia, we must have assurance from her that she would take the post if elected. He said that if we are to continue our refusal to support a constituent republic,2 we must decide whether we will support Yugoslavia. He thought that any action to support Yugoslavia, even to voting for her, would have a very serious adverse effect on our Greek case in the General Assembly.3 I told him that that was definitely my view but that the question of whether our alternative position would be to support Czechoslovakia had not yet been settled.

Mr. Johnson said that if the Department should decide definitely not to support a constituent republic under any circumstances, we might have to refuse to support any satellite state and take some other Eastern European state such as Turkey. I asked him if he did not think this would cause a bitter fight with Russia and he said it certainly would. He said he thought the British might be willing to refuse under any circumstances to vote for a constituent republic.

  1. Ambassador Herschel V. Johnson.
  2. That is, the Ukraine or Byelorussia.
  3. For documentation regarding this matter, see vol. v, pp. 816 ff.