245. Memorandum From the Executive Secretary of the Department of State (Brubeck) to the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy)1

SUBJECT

  • Meeting with William Benton

William Benton is calling at the White House Saturday, March 9, 1963 at 12 noon to discuss with the President his nomination as United States Member of the UNESCO Executive Board.

In connection with this meeting, there are a few points about our policy towards UNESCO which the Department believes it would be useful for the President to emphasize to Mr. Benton and which he should understand in taking the Executive Board position. Additional background information on UNESCO is attached.2

The Department has recently been following a hard-hitting, critical but constructive policy vis-a-vis UNESCO in an attempt to make the Organization more efficient and effective. We have been endeavoring to suggest to UNESCO that it achieve a clearer direction of effort by curtailing activities of marginal and questionable value, so that the Organization may achieve an increasing capability to deal with the more urgent needs of the developing nations. In this regard, we have stressed that UNESCO, along with the other Specialized Agencies of the United Nations, should redirect its program so as to make its maximum contribution to the UN Development Decade; and that, in this connection, it should concentrate its efforts on educational development in the context of over-all economic and social development.

While UNESCO has the potential for making a tremendous contribution to educational development, it must be realized that, even in this field, there are serious limitations on the magnitude of the tasks it can assume—limitations imposed not only by the capacity of the Organization but by the unwillingness of Member States to increase their contributions to UNESCO in any appreciable degree. Most of the large contributors—the United Kingdom, France, West Germany, and the Soviet Union-will undoubtedly continue to channel most of their assistance to under-developed countries through their own bilateral programs; and the United States cannot be in the position of contributing more than its fair share of the Organization’s budget. In addition, [Page 541] we feel that UNESCO has not achieved the high operating standards of some of the other Specialized Agencies, particularly with regard to its management and the efficient implementation of its programs.

As you are aware, UNESCO is not a particularly popular organization in the United States. Much of the criticism directed against it is based on misconceptions. On the other hand, there is some criticism of it which is legitimate, as for example the recent outcry over the publication by UNESCO of a booklet on “Equality of Rights between Races and Nationalities in the USSR,” a publication used by its Soviet authors for political purposes and blatant Soviet and anti-Western propaganda.

Senator Frank Church’s Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a session on the UNESCO booklet early this week at which Assistant Secretary Battle was called to testify. The Subcommittee was reassured by Mr. Battle’s statement that the U.S. is doing its utmost to discourage publication by UNESCO of documents of this sort and that the Department is trying to effect basic reforms in UNESCO. The Subcommittee was critical of UNESCO’s activity, seriously questioned the usefulness of some of it, and indicated that it would continue to keep a close eye on the Organization.

As indicated above, the Department believes it important that Mr. Benton, in assuming his new duties, be aware of the critical but constructive approach the U.S. is taking in UNESCO and that he be sympathetic toward it.

Robert Kent 3
  1. Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Subjects Series, United Nations (General), 1/63–4/63, Box 311. No classification marking.
  2. This background paper is not printed.
  3. Kent signed for Brubeck above Brubeck’s typed signature.