501.BB Palestine/4–1747
Memorandum by the Under Secretary of State (Acheson) to the Director of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs (Henderson)1
At my meeting today with the President I discussed with him the attached memorandum,2 giving him the views of Senators Vandenberg and Connally.
The President agreed with our first suggestion regarding the committee, that is, the small committee of neutral nations—nations which have not been involved in the Palestine matter. He did not undertake to pass on the exact nations included in your memorandum.
The President felt that our second suggestion was probably the most desirable second choice on the assumption that for some reason the first suggestion proved not to be feasible. He discussed with me and will give me his final views later regarding the inclusion of an Arab state on this second-choice committee. The President made the very pertinent observation that if the second-choice committee was decided upon, which included nations which would be opposed by the Arabs, they might very possibly try to get an advocate on the committee and might turn to the U.S.S.R. for that purpose. With this in mind, the [Page 1073] President wished to think over the desirability of giving them their own advocate and suggested for this purpose Egypt. He is fully aware that this action would be most unpalatable to the Zionists and he will give me his views on this tomorrow.
The President agreed that our third suggestion would be a most undesirable way to have the matter handled. He thought that this would be very little better than a full meeting of the General Assembly and that in order to get anywhere this large committee would be thrown back on the very considerations involved in choices one and two.