239. Memorandum of a Meeting With the Secretary of State, Department of State, Washington, May 14, 1957, 3 p.m.1
PRESENT
- Ambassador Richards
- The Under Secretary
- O—Mr. Henderson
- NEA—Mr. Rountree
- NEA—Mr. Wilkins
- S/P—Mr. Bowie
- C—Mr. Reinhardt
- S/S—Mr. Howe
- CIA—Mr. Allen Dulles
- CIA—Mr. Kermit Roosevelt
This was a continuation of the meeting of yesterday in which seriatim the various countries of the Middle East were taken up.
- 1.
-
Israel—
Mr. Rountree indicated that the Richards Mission had covered Israel with a minimum of public flurry. Subsequently, however, Eban had suggested a joint communiqué even though from the outset we had sought a unilateral communiqué by the Israeli. He noted that the Israeli draft2 mentioned nothing of the American Doctrine. More recently Eban has on instructions revised and improved the communiqué but still wants it to be joint. This is still a troublesome problem.
The Israeli have not mentioned the Suez or their intent to send a ship through as now mentioned in the news tickers. Indeed the Israeli had agreed previously to consult with us before taking any such action. The Secretary read his ticklish press conference statements on this subject.3
Action: The Secretary asked that we arrange for the text of his press conference statements on the the problem of an Israeli ship in the Suez to be transmitted to all our Embassies where it might be useful and to establish procedures whereby this is carried out with respect to all items in his press conferences.
- 2.
-
Lebanon—
Mr. Rountree reported that the Richards Mission has been satisfactory and that the medical assistance we had rendered was also successful. It was noted that the elections come up at the end of May [Page 538] and June and will represent the proof of our success in this area. It was noted also that the President of Lebanon may join the meeting of the Kings in Baghdad.4
- 3.
-
Syria—
Although Syria was not generally discussed Mr. Allen Dulles made the suggestion that we might seek to get President Chamoun of Lebanon to be the Envoy to influence Kuwatly who is in the “swing position” and might be won over to bring his influence to bear on the Army and cause a swing-away from the Left. Although some doubt was expressed that this would be effective it was agreed that there was no objection and Mr. Allen Dulles will prepare a project for discussion with Mr. Rountree.
- 4.
-
Saudi Arabia and Iraq—It was noted that the rapprochement between King Saud and Iraq was a most favorable development largely attributable to the Saud visit to the US5 and to the Richards Mission. The Secretary indicated that it was important that something come out of it and that we don’t allow a tendency to fall back.
There was a brief discussion of whether the meeting of the Kings tended to weaken the Pact which was doubted. It was thought that Iraq would not develop a tendency to get out of the Pact mainly because such a policy would undermine Nuri. The Secretary as an aside mentioned that he doubted the value of Iraq in the Pact. At the same time it was noted that although King Saud has become more tolerant of the Pact where before he has resented the effect it had on splitting the Arabs, there is no chance that he would himself wish to join.
The Secretary wanted to be sure that we were doing all we could to respond to King Saud’s expressed desires for closer relations with the U.S. Mr. Rountree reported that we had sent an American interpreter but that the Embassy Arab interpreter established even closer relations with the King.
There was brief mention of the present effort to improve the radio facilities in the area notably in Jordan. Mr. Allen Dulles also noted that the anti-Communist theme in the area was making good progress.
The balance of the discussion related to the Baghdad Pact in which Mr. Rountree noted that it would be a very important meeting in which the following three issues predominated:
- 1.
- U.S. membership in military committee.
- 2.
- Implementation of the aid commitments through the Pact.
- 3.
- Increased U.K. aid measures recently made known to the Department.
The Secretary emphasized the need to use care in the language describing our association with the Baghdad Pact to assure that it conforms to the spirit of the Middle East Resolution.
It was agreed that the position taken by the U.S. Military representatives in the Military Committee was of paramount importance. Messrs. Murphy and Henderson were meeting with General Twining this afternoon and would seek to find out what the positions were that were to be taken. If they experience any difficulty the Secretary felt that he probably should discuss the matter promptly with the President and seek through appropriate meetings to resolve issues wherein the planned military effort might not be consonant with our overall political policies. Meanwhile, however, Mr. Bowie would alert General Cutler to the problem and point out that we still wished to push for JCS submission to NSC of its paper on strategy for defending the area6 and to push for an early NSC discussion of it.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 790.00/5–1457. Secret. Drafted by Fisher Howe.↩
- Not found.↩
- For the transcript of Secretary Dulles’ press conference of
May 14, see Department of State Bulletin, June 3, 1957, pp. 894–901.
On May 21, the U.S. and Israeli Governments issued separate statements concerning Ambassador Richards’ mission to Israel. The texts are printed Ibid., June 17, 1957, pp. 968–969.
↩ - King Saud and King Faisal met in Baghdad May 11–18.↩
- King Saud visited the United States January 30–February 8, 1957. For documentation, see vol. XIII, pp. 413 ff.↩
- Reference is presumably to the Joint Chiefs of Staff paper “Military Implications of Joint Resolution 117 on the Middle East” transmitted to the National Security Council under a memorandum from Secretary of Defense Wilson on June 26; neither was declassified. (Department of State, OCB Files: Lot 61 D 385)↩