Two roads to Belgrade: the United States, Great Britain, and the first nonaligned conference

Abstract

In 1961, at the height of the Berlin crisis, the United States and Great Britain simultaneously struggled to adopt effective policies toward the first meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in Belgrade. While the John F. Kennedy administration initially adopted a policy of standoffishness toward the conference, the government of Harold Macmillan engaged in a campaign of quietly encouraging moderate attendance. Moderate British expectations led to sound policy, whereas the Kennedy administration's inability to develop a coherent outlook and response cost it a priceless opportunity to understand the emerging phenomenon of nonalignment.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the following individuals: the editorial staff of Cold War History, two anonymous reviewers, and the organizers and sponsors of the May 2012 conference ‘A True Alternative? The Nonaligned Movement in the Cold War’ held in Belgrade, Serbia. Thanks go as well to Marc-William Palen.

Notes

¹ G. H. Jansen, Nonalignment and the Afro-Asian States (New York: Praeger, 1966); Robert Vitalis. “The Midnight Ride of Kwame Nkrumah and Other Fables of Bandung (Ban-doong).” Humanity: An International Journal of Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Development 4, no. 2 (2013): 261–288.

² Vijay Prashad, The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World (New York: Norton, 2007), 95–104; Odd Arne Westad, The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 107.

³ W. W. Rostow, The Diffusion of Power: An Essay in Recent History (New York: Macmillan, 1972). 192–193; Arthur M. Schlesinger, A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1965). 518–520.

⁴ Robert B. Rakove, Kennedy, Johnson, and the Nonaligned World (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012).

⁵ John Dumbrell, A Special Relationship: Anglo-American Relations from the Cold War to Iraq (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). 56–70; David Dimbleby and David Reynolds, An Ocean Apart: The Relationship between Britain and America in the Twentieth Century (London: BBC Books, 1988). 229–244; Ritchie Ovendale, Anglo-American Relations in the Twentieth Century (London: Macmillan, 1998), 127–131. Real debate has emerged in recent years as to the depth and breadth of the special relationship during the years of “Jack and Mac.” For a helpful overview, see Nigel J. Ashton, “Harold Macmillan and the “Golden Days” of Anglo-American Relations Revisited, 1957–63,” Diplomatic History 29, no. 4 (2005): 691–723; also Andrew Priest, Kennedy, Johnson, and NATO: Britain, America and the dynamics of alliance, 1962–1968 (London: Routledge, 2006).

⁶ Rakove, Kennedy, Johnson, and the Nonaligned World.

⁷ Matthew Jones, Conflict and Confrontation in South East Asia, 1961–1965: Britain, the United States, and the Creation of Malaysia (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001). 18–28.

⁸ Frank Heinlein, British Government Policy and Decolonisation, 1945–1963: Scrutinising the Official Mind (London and Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 2002), 237–275; Philip E. Heming, “Macmillan and the End of British Empire in Africa” in Richard Aldous and Sabine Lee eds., Harold Macmillan and Britain's World Role (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996), 97–118.

⁹ Planning Paper, Planning Section, “Neutralism: The Role of the Uncommitted Nations in the Cold War,” January 30, 1961, FO 371/161211, National Archives, Kew (TNA); Paper, Policy Planning Council, “Neutralism: Suggested United States Policy Toward the Uncommitted Nations,” May 29, 1961, National Security File (NSF), box 303, “Neutralism, General,” John F. Kennedy Library, Boston (JFKL).

¹⁰ G. H. Jansen, Nonalignment and the Afro-Asian States (New York: Praeger, 1966). 278–290.

¹¹ Telegram 1283, New Delhi to London, June 23, 1961, FO 371/161212, TNA.

¹² Telegram 2022, Cairo to Washington, June 17, 1961, NSF, box 252, Belgrade Conference [1 of 2], JFKL.

¹³ Despatch 62, Cairo to London, June 17, 1961, FO 371/161212, TNA; Telegram 69, Cairo to London, June 27, 1961, ibid.

¹⁴ Telegram 2299, Washington to Vienna, June 19, 1961, NSF, box 252, Nonaligned Conferences [1 of 2], JFKL

¹⁵ Telegram 2082, Vienna to Washington, June 20, 1961, NSF, box 439, Non-Aligned Conferences, 1961–1963, Cairo-Belgrade [2 of 2], JFKL; Memorandum, Komer to Rostow, June 21, 1961, NSF, box 439, Non-Aligned Conferences, 1961–1963, Cairo-Belgrade [White House Memoranda], JFKL.

¹⁶ Memorandum, “Hands Off the ‘Neutral’ Conference?” Komer to Bundy and Rostow, June 21, 1961, NSF, box 439, “Non-Aligned Conferences, 1961–1963, Cairo-Belgrade [White House Memoranda],” JFKL.

¹⁷ Telegram 139, Stockholm to London, June 28, 1961, FO 371/161212, TNA; Telegram 406, London to Stockholm, July 4, 1961, ibid.

¹⁸ Telegram 840, London to Beirut, July 11, 1961, FO 371/161214, TNA.

¹⁹ Letter, A. E. Donald to Philip Ziegler, July 5, 1961, FO 371/161214, TNA.

²⁰ Letter, Philip Ziegler to P. Murray, July 10, 1961, FO 371/161214, TNA.

²¹ James G. Hershberg, “‘High-Spirited Confusion’: Brazil, the 1961 Belgrade Non-Aligned Conference, and the Limits of an ‘Independent’ Foreign Policy during the High Cold War,” Cold War History 7, no. 3 (2007): 375–376.

²² Minute, Ziegler, July 17, 1961, WP 13/41, FO 371/161215, TNA.

²³ Minute, Ziegler, July 18, 1961, WP 13/73, FO 371/161215, TNA.

²⁴ Telegram 526, Belgrade to London, August 1, 1961, FO 371/161215, TNA.

²⁵ Minute, C. C. C. Tickell, July 26, 1961, FO 371/161215, TNA.

²⁶ Telegram 115, Belgrade to Washington, July 31, 1961, Schlesinger White House Files (SWHF), Classified Subject File (CSF), box WH-25, “Belgrade Conference, 7/61–11/61,” JFKL.

²⁷ Paper, Rusk, “Outline on Germany and Berlin,” July 17, 1961, in DOS, FRUS, 1961–1963, Vol. 14: Berlin Crisis, 1961–1962 (Washington, DC: GPO, 1993), 207–209; Memcon, Ministerial Consultations on Berlin, August 5, 1961, in ibid, 269–280.

²⁸ Circular 140, July 22, 1961, NSF, box 252, Belgrade, Conference of Non-Aligned Nations, 9/61 [1 of 2], JFKL.

²⁹ Circular 179, July 31, 1961, ibid.

³⁰ Telegram 1863, Washington to London, August 3, 1961, FO 371/161215, TNA; Telegram 5401, London to Washington, August 10, 1961, ibid; Foreign Office Paper, “Conference of Non-Aligned States,” August 14, 1961, FO 371/161216, TNA; Telegram 1200, London to Cairo, August 17, 1961, ibid.

³¹ Memorandum, Schlesinger to Bundy, July 31, 1961, NSF, box 209, “Yugoslavia: General, 1/61–8/61,” JFKL.

³² Memorandum, Schlesinger to Kennedy, August 3, 1961, NSF, box 252A, “Nonaligned Conferences 1 of 2,” JFKL.

³³ Memorandum, Kennedy to Rusk, August 14, 1961, FRUS, 1961–1961, 14: 332.

³⁴ Memorandum, Schlesinger to McGhee, August 9, 1961, SWHF, CSF, box WH-25, “Belgrade Conference, 7/61–11/61,” JFKL.

³⁵ Memorandum, McGhee to Schlesinger, August 18, 1961, ibid.

³⁶ Telegram HYWH2, Kennedy to Stevenson, Bowles, and Kennan, August 20, 1961, NSF, box 86a, “Berlin, Neutral Nations Support,” JFKL.

³⁷ Rakove, Kennedy, Johnson, and the Nonaligned World: 45–51.

³⁸ Memorandum, Stevenson to Kennedy, August 23, 1961, NSF, box 86a, “Berlin, Neutral Nations Support,” JFKL; Memorandum, Bowles to Kennedy, August 22, 1961, ibid.

³⁹ Galbraith to White House, August 21, 1961, NSF, Box 252A, “Belgrade Conference,” JFKL.

⁴⁰ Schlesinger, A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House: 518–519.

⁴¹ Ibid., 518–522; Theodore C. Sorensen, Kennedy (New York: Harper & Row, 1965). 537–540; Rostow, The Diffusion of Power: An Essay in Recent History: 192–193.

⁴² Telegram 42, Belgrade to Washington, July 15, 1961, NSF, box 209A, “Yugoslavia: General, 1/61–8/61,” JFKL.

⁴³ See, for example, Memorandum, David Klein to Bundy, April 17, 1962, in FRUS, 1961–1963, Vol. 16: Eastern Europe; Cyprus; Greece; Turkey (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1994), 260–261.

⁴⁴ John Lewis Gaddis, George F. Kennan: An American Life (New York: Penguin Press, 2011). 533–573.

⁴⁵ George F. Kennan, Memoirs, 1950–1963 (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1972). 276–280.

⁴⁶ George F. Kennan, American Diplomacy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984). 52; Gaddis, Kennan, 125.

⁴⁷ Walter L. Hixson, George F. Kennan: Cold War Iconoclast (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989). 251.

⁴⁸ Letter, George Kennan to Walt Rostow, May 15, 1962, in Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Vol. 8: National Security Policy (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1996), 290.

⁴⁹ Telegram 222, Washington to Belgrade, August 30, 1961, NSF, box 252A, “Belgrade, Conference of Non-Aligned Nations, 9/61 [1 of 2],” JFKL; Frank Costigliola, ““Unceasing Pressure for Penetration”: Gender, Pathology, and Emotion in George Kennan's Formation of the Cold War,” The Journal of American History 83, no. 4 (1997): 1309–1339.

⁵⁰ Telegram 349, Belgrade to Washington, September 1, 1961, NSF, box 252A, “Belgrade, Conference of Non-Aligned Nations, 9/61 [1 of 2],” JFKL.

⁵¹ Telegram 350, Belgrade to Washington, September 1, 1961, ibid; Telegram 351, Belgrade to Washington, September 1, 1961, ibid; Telegram 372, Belgrade to Washington, September 3, 1961, ibid; Telegram 388, Belgrade to Washington, September 4, 1961, ibid.

⁵² Telegram 377, Belgrade to Washington, September 3, 1961, NSF, box 252A, Belgrade, Conference of Non-Aligned Nations, 9/61 [1 of 2], JFKL; Telegram 435, Belgrade to Washington, September 6, 1961, NSF, box 252A, Belgrade, Conference of Non-Aligned Nations, 9/61 [2 of 2], JFKL.

⁵³ Minute, Creswell, October 4, 1961, FO 371/161228, TNA.

⁵⁴ Telegram 636, Belgrade to Ottawa, September 11, 1961, FO 371/161227, TNA; Costigliola, “Unceasing Pressure,” 1339.

⁵⁵ Telegram 521, Washington to London, September 16, 1961, FO 371/161223, TNA; Arthur M. Schlesinger, Andrew Schlesinger, and Stephen C. Schlesinger, Journals, 1952–2000 (New York: Penguin Press, 2007). 133.

⁵⁶ During his posting to Helsinki, Creswell counseled against regarding Finland as lost to the Soviet bloc; he often perceived the freedom of maneuver afforded by Finland's neutrality, and was less alarmist than his American counterparts. See Vesa Vares, “Is This the Top of the Slippery Slope?,” Scandinavian Journal of History 27, no. 3 (2002): 150; Jussi M. Hanhimäki, Containing Coexistence America, Russia, and the “Finnish Solution” (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1997), 165–166, 182.

⁵⁷ Despatch 95, Belgrade to London, September 12, 1961, FO 371/161226, TNA.

⁵⁸ Despatch 96, Belgrade to London, September 12, 1961, FO 371/161226, TNA.

⁵⁹ Despatch 98, Belgrade to London, September 20, 1961, ibid.

⁶⁰ Telegram 1037, London to Washington, September 11, 1961, NSF, box 439, “Nonaligned Conferences” folder; Note, Wp13/234, FO 371/161223, TNA; “UK Views on the Conference,” September 12, 1961, FO 371/161224, ibid.

⁶¹ Transcript, Rusk and Edward R. Murrow, August 29, 1961, RG-59, Records of Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Transcripts of Telephone Calls, box 45, 8/1/61–8/31/61,” National Archives, College Park.

⁶² Despatch 262, Belgrade to Washington, November 14, 1961, SWHF, CSF, box WH-25, Belgrade Conference, 7/61–11/61, JFKL.