Chronology of Cambodian History
Memorandum of
Conversation
Washington, April 21, 1967.
SUBJECT
ANZUS Council Meeting--Part Two--Cambodia
PARTICIPANTS
The Secretary
Prime Minister Keith Holyoake of New Zealand
Minister for External Affairs Paul Hasluck of Australia
Mr. William P. Bundy, Assistant Secretary, EA
Mr. Ian Stewart, Head, Defense Division, Department of External Affairs of
New Zealand
Sir James Plimsoll, Secretary of the Department of External Affairs of
Australia
Hasluck began by reporting on Prime Minister Holt's trip
to Phnom Penh. He said that Holt had wished to help, but it was hard on a
first visit to get into argument on the difficult questions related to the
VC. Holt had engaged in some discussion with Sihanouk, in which without being
argumentative he had at least got across to Sihanouk that the US believed it
had a real case.
Hasluck then adverted to the question of what Deschamps
might usefully do. He thought he could readily and perhaps usefully make
soundings seeking to have a direct US-Cambodian channel of some sort.
However, he was dubious that Deschamps could effectively raise the question
of providing or exchanging information on VC/NVA activities. Deschamps could
only talk to Sihanouk as a practical matter, since talking to any other
Cambodian would arouse resistance from Sihanouk when he heard about it.
Sihanouk would fear the Chinese reaction if he appeared to be getting into
such an information exchange with us. Therefore, even if the exchange were
proposed, Sihanouk would probably turn it down. If he did accept, he would at
once wish to know where it led, and this would be most difficult.
Hasluck concluded that it was the general Australian view
that the US should not rush. Let Deschamps talk about direct contacts, but
don't ask him to discuss exchange of information.
The Secretary responded that he was agreeable to this
proposal. As to the locale of direct contacts, he suggested that they could
be in Tokyo, or New Delhi, or at the UN, or indeed wherever the Cambodians
wished. The Secretary noted that Senator Brooke felt he had received some
encouragement in this direction, though not from Sihanouk himself.
Hasluck then went on to say that he himself had made the
deliberated decision to leave Deschamps in Phnom Penh, having learned when he
took over (in April 1964) that Deschamps was up for transfer. He considered
Deschamps ideally equipped to conduct a policy of keeping relations smooth
with the Cambodians and particularly never getting into argument. This was in
fact Deschamps' own personal inclination, and this he had done. Hasluck
considered the results of this policy to have been of value, as the
Australians clearly had good standing in Phnom Penh now and even their role
in Viet-Nam was not condemned by the Cambodians.
The matter was left at that,
and Bundy remarked that we would draw up a possible message for Deschamps to
use suggesting direct contacts.
Source: US Department of State
FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES
1964-1968, Volume XXVII
Mainland Southeast Asia; Regional Affairs
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