121. Memorandum for the Record by the Counselor of the Department of State (MacArthur)1
Pursuant to the Secretary’s instructions, I called Senator Mansfield last Saturday2 to say that Mr. Rountree and I would be glad to drop over to see the Senator this week to have a general discussion about Middle East matters. Senator Mansfield was not in his office Saturday when I called, so I left a message to the above effect, saying I would call him today. I got in touch with the Senator on the telephone [Page 283] this morning and repeated that if he thought it would be useful, Mr. Rountree and myself would be glad to come over to have a brief talk with him to bring him up-to-date on Middle East developments in view his interest. The Senator said he would like this very much, and suggested Wednesday afternoon at 4 o’clock, which I said would be entirely agreeable.
I then said to Senator Mansfield that there was one matter relating to the Baghdad Pact which I just wished to mention to him. Although we had no intention of joining the Baghdad Pact at this juncture for reasons with which he was fully familiar from his discussions with the Secretary, the Baghdad Pact organization did provide that non-members could participate in the work of the subordinate Economic Committee on a membership basis. We had received a recommendation from Mr. Loy Henderson that we accept membership in this subordinate committee, and that we planned to inform Mr. Henderson that we approved his recommendation. In joining the Economic Committee as a member, we would make it clear that this did not involve any additional commitment with respect to economic aid either through the Baghdad Pact mechanism or bilaterally, and also that we were not joining the Pact. However, our feeling was that in view of the fact that we were carrying on aid programs in the Asian Baghdad Pact countries, it would be useful for us to have a member of the Economic Committee follow the evolution of work in that committee so we would know what was cooking.
The Senator said he had the highest regard for Mr. Henderson’s judgment, and if Mr. Henderson felt it desirable for us to assume membership in the Economic Committee, he felt we could go along with his recommendation. He added that it seemed important to him that we give what encouragement we properly could to the present government of Iraq, which was well-disposed toward the West.