189. Editorial Note
On January 29, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the Senate Committee on Armed Services, sitting jointly to consider Senate Joint Resolution 19, adopted by a vote of 30 to 0 a motion by Senator J. William Fulbright requesting the Department of State to “provide a chronological statement, together with classified and unclassified supporting documents, telegrams, and the like, of all the events that have contributed significantly to the present situation in the Middle East, with particular reference to the period beginning January 1946.” The resolution also affirmed that “the committees desire such information as soon as possible, but they will not delay action on S.J. Res. 19 pending receipt of such information.” The text of the resolution is in Senator Theodore Green’s letter to Secretary Dulles of January 29. (Department of State, Central Files, 114.2/1–2957) The text of the letter is printed in the Congressional Record, volume 103, part 11, page 14702.
For the record of the discussion on Fulbright’s motion, see Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Executive Sessions (Historical Series), Volume IX, pages 101–127.
On April 12, Deputy Under Secretary Murphy transmitted to Senator Fulbright the first installment of documents compiled by the Historical Division of the Department of State: a chronological statement with supporting documents concerning U.S. policy and the Aswan High Dam, which Fulbright’s subcommittee had asked be given priority. (Letter from Murphy to Fulbright, April 12; Department of State, Central Files, 874.2614/4–1257) During the next 4 months, the Department of State forwarded to the subcommittee in installments additional documentation dealing with the Aswan High Dam and chronological statements with supporting documents covering U.S. policy in the Middle East for the years 1946–1948. Copies of the chronological statements and related documentation are filed with Office of the Historian Research Projects 396 through 399 in National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, PA/HO Files: Lot 79 D 251 and Lot 89 D 263.
[Page 446]Finally on July 30, the special subcommittee met and decided to abandon its inquiry. Afterwards, Fulbright told the press that the decision to discontinue had been made in view of the size of the task and the fact that events since adoption of the Eisenhower Doctrine had made many of the questions obsolete. (The Washington Post, July 31, 1957)