Office of the Historian

Secretary’s Memoranda of Conversation: Lot 65 D 238

Memorandum of Meeting With the President, by the Secretary of State

confidential
[Washington,] May 3, 1951.

Luncheon for the Israeli Prime Minister1

I went over with the President the information contained in my briefing memorandum,* which the President has in mind.2 He will not raise the matter and will not permit himself to be committed in anyway.

D[ean] A[cheson]

  1. Mr. Ben Gurion arrived in the United States at Washington, May 3. President Truman gave him a luncheon the following day. On May 4, the Prime Minister also had separate conversations with W. Averell Harriman and Secretary Marshall. The Prime Minister met with President Truman on May 8 at the White House. No primary record of any of these conversations has been found in Department of State files. For what is apparently a summary of the talk held with Mr. Marshall, see the excerpt from the Daily Top Secret Summary of May 17, p. 686.

    For the memorandum of the Prime Minister’s conversation held with Secretary Acheson, May 8, see p. 667.

    During his stay in the United States, Mr. Ben Gurion visited a number of cities in connection with the Israeli bond drive. He left the country from New York on May 31.

    ↩
  2. On what to say if Prime Minister raises question of $150,000,000 at luncheon today. [Handwritten, unsigned footnote interpolation in the source text.]↩

  3. A section devoted to Israel in Mr. McWilliams’ briefing memorandum of May 3 to the Secretary follows:

    “The President is giving a luncheon for the Israeli Prime Minister tomorrow. Mr. McGhee suggests you discuss with the President the line to be taken in event the question of grant aid comes up. For your information, the Omnibus Aid Bill includes $25 million economic grant aid for Israel, $22.5 million for the Arab States, and $75 million for the UN activities of aid to Arab refugees.

    “Of the $75 million we propose to seek only $50 million appropriation at this time. This fund will be supplemented by other contributing nations and will enable relief operations costing about $25 million per annum to be continued and will make possible a substantial start on a program of integration of Arab refugees. This program is of direct benefit to Israel.” (Lot 65 D 238)

    ↩