Cable from Dutch Embassy, Washington (Van Roijen), 1 November 1962

REFERENCE No. 10448

DATE OF DISPATCH: 1 November 1962

DATE OF RECEIPT: 2 November 1962

TO: Min[ister]. o[f]. F[oreign].A[ffairs]

FROM: Washington

Information copy sent to: New York

SECRET

I would like to draw attention to the following points from a conversation I had today with one of the officials of the directorate far eastern affairs of the State Department.

firstly [My] informant said that the people at State were very pleased, at least so far, that Sukarno had not made any statement in support of Castro in the Cuba crisis. The Indonesian president did have the occasion to do so, such as during a recent speech to students. According to [the] informant perhaps this wise forbearance from Sukarno’s side could be read as a first indication of the salutary effect the firm and resolute course of action of the Kennedy government regarding Cuba will have - according to expectations.

secondly The US government intends to point out to Jakarta, as they hope superfluously, the way in which the S[oviet] U[nion] did not hesitate to abandon its friend India which had gone out of its way to curry Moscow’s favor, once push came to shove in the conflict with China; “we hope the lesson won’t be lost on Sukarno.” I then gave as my opinion that Sukarno would continue untiringly in his attempts to play US and SU off against one another.

thirdly Informant said that my colleague [Indonesian Ambassador Zairin] Zain will soon pay a four to six week visit to Indonesia. Zain has lately devoted himself to procuring new economic support from the US to his country. He has taken steps to achieve this both at State and with other bodies. According to informant the US side is in principle willing to provide support in order to prevent Indonesia from slipping into chaos any further. At the same time they [the Americans] are determined only to provide this support if assurances will be obtained that the money for economic development will be usefully spent. To this end for example the International Monetary Fund could according to informant be engaged. Under no circumstances do they want to run the risk of later finding out, as recently happened in the case of Brazil, that the support/money ended up in the wrong hands.

Van Roijen 926 ++