419. Memorandum From William H. Brubeck of the National Security Council Staff to President Kennedy0
There is a good chance that the South African issue and, perhaps, the Portuguese-Africa issue will be up again in the UN Security Council in November. One of the hard-to-measure factors we will face, as we did in [Page 654] August, is how strong African opinion is on these issues and, therefore, how tough a political issue it really is for us with the Africans.
On this score, the attached analysis1 of African reaction to our performance in August (based in part on a thoro canvass of our African posts) suggests that the factor of African reaction may be less important than is sometimes claimed. There was very little evidence, in the African press, in statements to our Embassies, or in other forms of any great African concern with the UN performance. In fact our status in Africa probably improved because of our vote on the South African resolution and because the Portuguese agreed to talk to the Africans after the Ball mission to Lisbon. (Note particularly paragraphs 3, 8, 11 and 13 of the attached.)
- Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Countries Series, Africa. Confidential. A marginal notation reads: “(Taken from Pres. week-end reading dtd 10/26/63, Tab 4).”↩
- Current Intelligence Memorandum attached to the source text, but not printed.↩
- Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩