U.S. Condemns Nasser’s Role in Congo; U.a.r. Supplies Soviet Arms

Secretary of State Dean Rusk condemned today the pro-Communist role of President Nasser of the United Arab Republic in the Congo crisis before a closed meeting of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, it was learned from committee sources.

Mr. Rusk indicated to the committee that while President Kennedy did not name the United Arab Republic in his warning last night against aggression in the Congo, the President’s remarks applied to Nasser as well as the Soviet Union.

The Secretary told the Secret Congressional Committee session that the UAR had closely coordinated its Congo activities with Moscow. Mr. Rusk reported that the UAR was supplying Soviet-manufactured arms and munitions to the pro-Communist Stanleyville group of Antoine Gizenga.

The Gizenga faction, supporters of the slain pro-Communist Patrice Lumumba, is backed by the Soviet Union. The UAR was the first nation to follow the Russian lead in recognizing Gizenga as the “rightful” government of the Congo, Mr. Rusk noted.

Mr. Rusk told the committee that Nasser was playing a dangerous game. He expressed hope that Nasser would recognize the danger to its own independence in the Soviet attack on the United Nations African role. The Secretary told Congressmen that the State Department had information about many loads of Russian weapons reaching Gizenga in Stanleyville from the United Arab Republic.

State Department sources meanwhile pointed out that President Kennedy’s reference yesterday to the United Nations role in the Gaza Strip may have not been accidental. It could have been an indirect warning to Nasser, reminding him that the United Nations rescued him in the Sinai-Suez situation of 1956-1957.

Mr. Kennedy last night told his press conference of an example of United Nations action, stating that “the fact that they (the UN) maintained troops in the Gaza Strip for a number of years I think has been helpful in maintaining peace in that area.”