Foreign Relations of the United States, 1949, The United Nations; The Western Hemisphere, Volume II

IO Files: US/A/1725

Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. John Boss, Deputy to the United States Representative at the United Nations (Austin)

confidential

[New York,] September 22, 1949.

Trygve Lie¹ called me into his office following conclusion of the morning plenary and said Bebler² and his associates had come to see him and urged very strongly that he support Yugoslavia’s candidacy for the Security Council. Lie said that he had not given the Yugoslavs an answer one way or the other. He had asked them, however, as earnest of their good intentions whether the Yugoslav Government could not take an active and immediate part in liquidating once and for all their part in the Greek Case. He added to me that this was a very complex matter of world politics which he did not feel competent to express any view on until he had learned our view. I told him this matter was as much of a surprise to us as anyone else. I explained what our position had been and indicated for the moment we had no position one way or the other but were actively considering the question.³ I told him we would try to inform him as promptly as possible as soon as we reached a decision. I emphasized to him very strongly that the United States had no part whatsoever in this initiative by the Yugoslav Government.

. . . . . . .

1. Secretary-General of the United Nations.
2. Aleš Bebler, Yugoslav Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs and Member of the Yugoslav Delegation to the General Assembly.
3. The U.S. Delegation had discussed the Yugoslav matter at its meetings on September 21 and 22 (IO Files, documents US/A/M(Chr)/98 and US/A/M(Chr)/99). The Department’s instruction, telegram Gadel 4, supra, was the subject of discussion at the September 22 meeting, one opinion being that the instruction was a fairly strong endorsement of the Yugoslav candidacy and that the U.S. Delegation “should say we were supporting Yugoslavia.”