our objectives, although he originally had favored this proposal
also. In effect, the procedure proposed in the policy now before
the Council would constitute a UN trusteeship with the interested
nations acting as trustees.
This was different from a direct UN
trusteeship and administration of the area, which Secretary Dulles
said he did not favor because such a proposal would involve too
many complications.
Secretary Dulles concluded by stating his view that if
the Council accepted the general position set forth in the present
proposal, there would follow a period of intensive negotiation with
the other interested and claimant powers.: Our negotiations with
such powers so far have been very tentative and general because we
ourselves lacked a fixed U. S. position. It would be difficult,
Secretary Dulles predicted, to deal with the Chileans and the Argentines because of their nationalistic animosity against the
United Kingdom.
At the conclusion of Secretary Dulles' comments, General
Cutler asked him whether he thought it would be edvisable to include language in the new policy which would provide flexibility
s0 as to exclude certain portions of Antarctica fram the proposed
joint administration. Secretary Dulles answered in the affirmative, and repeated that we might have trouble in the Palmer Peninsula area.
Thereafter General Cutler called on the Acting Secretary
of Defense, but Secretary Quarles said that it would be advisable,
first, to hear from Admiral Burke, who was Acting Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff. Admiral Burke, in explanation of the opposition of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the proposed new policy,
cited in the first instance the unhappy experience of the United
States in its negotiations with the Russians. He next pointed out
that the views of other countries having an interest in Antarctica
may not coincide with our own views, as had been indicated by the
British leak. The Chiefs, moreover, do not want the USSR as a member of the joint group to administer Antarctica. As far as propeganda is concerned, the Chiefs greatly feared that the USSR would
be able to twist our proposal to its own advantage and might, indeed, suggest the application of this scheme of administration to
other areas of the world. Admiral Burke predicted that we would
lose our propaganda battle with the Soviet Union, whose claims were,
incidentally, in the Admiral's view, very weak indeed. Von Bellings-
hausen had merely circumnavigated the area in 1819-20.
no actual landings on the sub-continent.
He had made
The President pointed out to Admiral Burke that he had
made no mention of Secretary Dulles' point concerning the possibility that the Soviets would establish a base in the Antarctic. If
they remained there, we would not be able to remove them from this
base except by the use of force. Admiral Burke replied that he
doubted the practicability of bases in the Antarctic area.
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