Office of the Historian

204. Paper Agreed Upon at the Conference at Bermuda1

Bermuda, March 23, 1957.

1. AGREED POSITION ON STUDY OF MIDDLE EAST PROBLEMS

The President and the Prime Minister agreed that there should be undertaken as a matter of urgency a study of the present situation and probable future developments throughout the Middle East, dealing first with those aspects of the problems bearing upon the supply of oil to the free world, with a view to making recommendations for furthering the common interests of the two Governments in this area.

The following plan was adopted for the implementation of this decision: [Page 474]

1.
Appropriate officials of the respective governments will separately study the factors involved.
2.
On or before April 15 exchanges of views based upon these studies will start as between officials of the Department of State and the British Embassy in Washington, or between the Foreign Office and the American Embassy in London.
3.
It will then be mutually decided what further procedural steps should be taken to concert the views of the two governments to bring them into accord in so far as possible. This might be accomplished either by a visit of American officials to London or of British officials to Washington.

  1. Source: Department of State, Conference Files: Lot 62 D 181, CF 868. Secret.↩