Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

Remarks to the Heads of U.N. Delegations from New African Nations and Cyprus

October 14, 1960

I UNFORTUNATELY can't speak in french, so I will have the interpreter to interpret just a few words I have to say to you here in a group.

First of all, it is a great privilege for me to have the opportunity of seeing you, and I thank all of you for taking the trouble to come down to Washington so that I could have a word with you.

As you can well know, we in this country have followed with very great interest your various steps in reaching the state of independence, and each of you being accorded a seat in the United Nations organization.

Some of you may have heard the speech I made before the United Nations, expressing not only the friendship of this country for the peoples of Africa, but our hope that we may be of some help to you, and our refusal to attempt interference in the affairs of any other nation, and to refuse to achieve or try to achieve, any kind of domination--military, political, or economic. We want only willing partners--that's all we want.

I have only a few months left in the office I now occupy, but no matter who shall succeed me in this office, I know that his interest will be no less than mine in the efforts you will be making to advance the standards of living of your people and to lead them toward a free and democratic, self-governing type of organization which will give the greatest possible satisfaction to each of you and to the individuals of your nation.

The proposals I have made before the United Nations may not be exactly those that you believe to be correct. All I was trying to point out was the kind of thing that the United States would be prepared to join with others in attempting to do, through the United Nations. But this does not mean that your own views, your own ideas of the details of such schemes should not have a very great influence on exactly how these cooperative programs will be launched.

Now, gentlemen, with just a word of apology for our Washington weather that delayed your landing here, I suggest that we adjourn to the gallery for some orange juice and coffee, and this would give me an opportunity--which I am seeking--to talk to little groups more intimately than I can here, making a speech.

[Following these remarks in his office, the President accompanied the representatives of the new states to an adjoining gallery. There he responded as follows to remarks addressed to him by Issofou Djermakoye, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Niger:]

In a rather long life I have received few commendations on my efforts for peace in this world that have touched me more deeply.

While I have never visited the middle of Africa, I am quite sure in my heart that I understand clearly your desires and the desires of your people in this world of tensions and fears. I understand when you say that "we in Africa are without great material strength" and that you stand between two great hostile blocs.

But, sir, we are not a bloc. We are not hostile. But we are determined that those forces which want to destroy liberty, the dignity of man, and human freedom shall not prevail in this world. When there is a militant dictatorship that has proclaimed openly and time again its intention to communize the world and control it from Moscow, then it is time for all of us--all free nations--so to order our affairs as to prevent selfish, dictatorial forces from having their way in the world.

We do not urge--indeed we do not desire--that you should belong to one camp or to the other. You cannot afford to waste your money which is needed to build the hospitals, the schools, the roads that your people need--you cannot afford to put that money into costly armaments.

So, we are not talking about membership in any association--even though it may be a voluntary association to defend militarily against the threat that does exist in the world.

It is because of this that I said earlier to you that the United States does not want either militarily, politically, or economically, to dominate, control or subvert the peoples of your nations. The only thing we ask is that through your own love of freedom and the determination of your people to live their own lives as they choose, you will resist others who have military, economic, or political intent to dominate you. These people should not--cannot--penetrate your people and use them for their own evil purposes.

Gentlemen, I assure you, as I told some of you at the tables, my leaving this office will not terminate my devotion to world peace with justice. Whenever and wherever I see liberty threatened throughout this world, so long as I can write, so long as I can speak, I shall always be on the side of freedom.

One thing I can assure you, the Government of this Nation will always continue to express for its people the same sentiments I have outlined here today.

Thank you for coming to visit with me.

Note: The delegates arrived in Washington aboard the Presidential plane "Columbine." The new nations were represented as follows: Republic of Cameroun by Charles Okala, Minister of foreign Affairs; Central African Republic by Michel Gallin-Douathe, chairman, U.N. delegation; Republic of Chad by Jules Toura Gaba, Minister of foreign Affairs; Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) by Stephane Tchichelle, Vice Premier and Minister of foreign Affairs; Republic of Cyprus by Zenon Rossides, chairman of the U.N. delegation; Republic of Dahomey by Ignacio Pinto, chairman of the U.N. delegation; Gabonese Republic by Joseph N'Goua, chairman of the U.N. delegation; Republic of Ivory Coast by Mathieu Ekra, chairman of the U.N. delegation; Malagasy Republic by Louis Rakotomalala, Minister of foreign Affairs; Republic of Mall by Ousmane Ba, Minister of Labor; Republic of Niger by Issofou Djermakoye, Minister of Justice; federation of Nigeria by Jaja Wachuku, Minister of Economic Development; Republic of Senegal by Ibrahima Sarr, Minister of Labor and Civil Service; Republic of Togo by Paulin Freitas, Minister of foreign Affairs; Somali Republic by Abdullahi Issa, Minister of foreign Affairs; and Republic of Upper Volta by Frederic Guirma, chairman of the U.N. delegation.

The delegates were invited by the President to remain for a tour of the United States as guests of the Government.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Remarks to the Heads of U.N. Delegations from New African Nations and Cyprus Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/235553

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