320/8–354: Circular instruction
The Secretary of State to Certain Diplomatic Missions1
CA–819. Subject: Presidency Ninth General Assembly. Prince Wan, Foreign Minister of Thailand and Van Kleffens, Netherlands, are candidates for the Presidency of the Ninth General Assembly which convenes in New York in September of this year. Both candidates are excellent men for whom we have high regard and, in our view, either one would make a fine President. They are now actively engaged in securing support from other Governments.
We have promised that the United States will vote for Prince Wan. We have not, however, committed ourselves to lobby for him. Nor do we intend to lobby against Van Kleffens.
In the event you are approached by the Foreign Office as to our position on these respective candidates you should say that both candidates are outstanding and either would make an excellent President. We, of course, recognize that the Netherlands is a strong defender of the free world and that Van Kleffens is an able statesman with a distinguished record. We, however, will vote for Prince Wan. Thailand has been an equally staunch representative of the free world. Moreover, in view of the current seriousness of Southeast Asian problems and since Asian problems are likely to be the center of attention at the Ninth General Assembly, we believe that it would be desirable to have an individual from that area of the world elected President. Prince Wan has for many years had valuable U.N. experience and has served as chairman of a main committee of the General Assembly at three sessions. He has proved himself a very able parliamentarian in the United Nations and recently at the Geneva Conference as co-chairman of the Korean discussions.
- Drafted by the Acting Assistant Secretary of State for UN Affairs (Wainhouse). cleared with the geographic bureaus and the Deputy Under Secretary (Murphy), approved and signed by the Secretary of State. Certain of the drafting was done along lines specifically requested by Secretary Dulles (memorandum, Wainhouse to Dulles, Aug. 2, 1954, UNP files, lot 59 D 287, “Slates”). Sent to 57 posts.↩