Office of the Historian

155. Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation Between the President and the Secretary of State, Washington, February 26, 1957, 10:15 a.m.1

Washington, February 26, 1957, 10:15 a.m.

The Secretary has sent over the most recent draft resolution (with a memo of our position),2 which Amb. Lodge wants to start discussing this morning with some of the countries that joined with us as cosponsors [Page 284] in the last resolution. Dulles thinks it ought to be discussed on a very urgent basis with Mollet—not to hold off for this afternoon’s 2:30 meeting, but to bring it up at 10:30 this morning.

What we would like to have done is some French pressure being put on the Israelis to withdraw. With Pineau as President [not present], the Secretary of State is dubious about Mollet making any decisions on his own, particularly since this has been primarily Pineau’s whole project.3

So if the President could bring up the subject, & if Mollet is willing, Dulles said to give him a call & he & Pineau will drop whatever they are talking about & come over to join in this conversation.

Meanwhile, Mr. Dulles would like to tell Cabot Lodge to start his talks on it. The resolution has a 10-day basis, which Lodge thinks very unwise, & suggests it would be preferable to adopt Indian form4 — that unless the Secretary General is able to report in 72 hours the beginning of the Israelis’ withdrawal, then they shall stand condemned.

  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, Eisenhower Diaries. Prepared in the Office of the President. A briefer memorandum of this telephone conversation, prepared by Bernau in the Office of the Secretary of State, is in the Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, White House Telephone Conversations.↩
  2. See the two attachments to Dulles’ note to Eisenhower, supra.↩
  3. The memorandum of telephone conversation by Bernau has Dulles explaining that under the French Cabinet system, Mollet could not deal with the Israel withdrawal question without Pineau being present.↩
  4. Delga 803 from USUN, February 25, transmitted to the Department of State the verbatim text of an Indian draft resolution which Lall was informally circulating among other delegations. The fourth operative paragraph of the Indian draft requested the Secretary-General to report not later than 72 hours after the adoption of the resolution concerning Israel’s compliance with the call for withdrawal; and the fifth operative paragraph called upon member states to deny all military, economic, or financial assistance and facilities to Israel in the event that the Secretary-General was not able to report that Israel was withdrawing fully behind the armistice lines. (Department of State, Central Files, 674.84A/2–2557)↩