Office of the Historian

238. Memorandum of a Meeting With the Secretary of State, Department of State, Washington, May 13, 1957, 11 a.m.1

Washington, May 13, 1957, 11 a.m.

PRESENT

  • Ambassador Richards
  • The Under Secretary
  • G—Mr. Murphy
  • O—Mr. Henderson
  • NEA—Mr. Rountree
  • NEA—Mr. Wilkins
  • S/P—Mr. Bowie
  • S/S—Mr. Howe
  • CIA—Mr. Allen Dulles
  • CIA—Mr. Kermit Roosevelt

The Secretary sought to discuss various aspects of our Middle East policy, particularly to get Ambassador Richards’ views before he left town. The Secretary said that he thought we were at an intermediate stage with the completion of the Richards Mission on the American Doctrine and that we must prepare ourselves for increased responsibilities in the area.

At the Secretary’s request Mr. Rountree led the discussion touching on the various countries:

1.

Morocco—

The Moroccans are definitely favorable to the American Doctrine but are more interested in U.S. bases negotiations which started on Saturday. The Moroccans are definitely seeking increased aid and Defense is not willing at all to pay all that the Moroccans want. There is presently scheduled $40 million in defense support. Mr. Rountree pointed out the difficulty in estimating the actual need of the Moroccans since our assistance would be supplementary to the French, the size of which we do not know. Continued French assistance can be expected because of the close economic ties and dependence between them.

2.

Tunisia—

Bourghiba has given the fullest support to our policies. However, Bourghiba in a speech recently indicated clearly that he wishes to have military assistance as a significant part of the $3 million we had offered in economic aid and this, as Bourghiba knows, will, as a matter of principle, cause difficulty with the French; he is raising it as a test to show his independence of the French.

3.

Libya—

There are no current policy problems although the UK is presently cutting its military establishment and support which comes to $12.5 million. Our bill may come to as much as $30 million.

4.

Sudan—

The growing rapprochement with Ethiopia was noted as a good sign. The elections are coming up and the Egyptians are seeking to interfere.

5.

Yemen—

Soviet penetration was noted and Saud’s awareness and unhappiness with this. The Imam is playing into the hands of the Russian technicians and Russian policy [less than 1 line of source text not declassified]. The need for a U.S. Mission there was emphasized even though there is no present budget plan for a Mission.

The question of Suez Canal arrangements by the British came up and the lack of information on what the British were planning to do or whether they had come to any real agreement at Basel. The Secretary said that Caccia or Coulson should be called in to give us information on British plans.

Mr. Rountree discussed a troublesome development with respect to the Baghdad Pact, namely, that Admiral Boone is planning to visit a number of Middle Eastern countries following the Baghdad Pact [meeting] to discuss the implementation of the American Doctrine including, according to his stated reasons, the estimated costs and the possibility of stationing U.S. troops and further U.S. bases. It was noted that Mr. Murphy was meeting on this subject later. It was agreed that such a trip would be most inadvisable and Mr. Bowie pointed out that the NSC had asked the JCS for its views on the defense arrangements for the Middle East and he thought that any military trip such as was contemplated would be completely out of order before the JCS report to the Council which the Military seems to be reluctant to submit. Also on the Baghdad Pact it was noted that General Twining would be present as the U.S. representative on the military committee and Mr. Rountree indicated that we had asked the Military for their position papers to make sure that this was fully in line with our political policies for the meeting.

The Secretary thought that a separate meeting should perhaps be held for discussion of Egypt.2

The Secretary asked to have the present group reconvene to complete the round-up of Middle Eastern countries, including at least Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.3

  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 611.80/5–1357. Secret. Drafted by Fisher Howe.↩
  2. No record of such a meeting has been found.↩
  3. Those present at the May 13 meeting continued their discussion on May 14; see infra. A third meeting on the Middle East, which Ambassador Richards did not attend, was held in the Secretary’s office on May 21. The memorandum of this conversation briefly indicated that a memorandum submitted by Allen Dulles was discussed. (Department of State, Central Files, 790.00/5–2157)↩