Prime Minister John Diefenbaker was the White House on this date in 1961 for talks with rookie U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Dief was accompanied by his foreign affairs minister, Howard Green, while JFK’s Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, also participated in the talks. During the discussions, Dief briefed Kennedy on the Commonwealth’s facing up to South Africa’s odious system of apartheid.
“The Prime Minister spoke of the coming meeting in London of the Commonwealth Prime Ministers and the problem created by the necessity of the Union of South Africa seeking readmission to the Commonwealth now that it had determined to become a republic,” the American note-taker’s report noted. “He said that this question of its readmission would cause great difficulty with the colored members of the Commonwealth and that it placed him in a very difficult position. He indicated his view that the Commonwealth could only prosper if its members pursued enlightened racial policies. The President acknowledged the problem posed and smilingly said that in this case it was fortunate for us that the United States was not a member of the Commonwealth.”
You can read more of the note-taker’s report of the discussions between the two leaders at this link: https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v13/d418
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.