270. Memorandum From Robert W. Komer of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy)0
McGB:
Have talked with Mike Feldman about Nasser visit.1 We both think invite would be premature. Aside from exacerbating already sensitive domestic Jewish feelings, it wouldn’t gain us much at this stage.
My pitch to JFK and Bowles would be that we have already given Nasser enough bait, particularly as result of Kaissouni visit, to hold him for a while. It is now time to sit back, wait for some results, and then take a new reading. Immediately after having given him more PL-480, $20–30 million in stabilization credits, and promised to consider some $51 million in development loans, why rush in with yet another goody in form of an invite? It would be to throw away cheaply one of our hole cards, at a time when Nasser himself doesn’t expect any more.
Instead we ought to test Nasser’s responsiveness by a series of discreet probes over next few months before proceeding to what most of us would regard as the culmination of a major political initiative. Moreover, to keep Nasser dangling a bit about a visit is an added inducement to good behavior on his part. Finally, I gather that only open place on calendar would be December, so why invite him now for December or later when so many things could happen in the meantime to make an invitation inadvisable.
I’m still strongly in favor of an invite at right moment. And we should invite Nasser before Tito. Not to do so would be highly offensive to a jealous Arab who, whatever he may be, is not a Communist. To invite Tito before Nasser would, I think, be deeply resented.
- Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Country Series, United Arab Republic, 3/62–5/62. Secret. A handwritten note on the source text by Komer reads: “Suggest you send Chet’s letter to Mike.” A note by Bundy below that responds: “RWK: Or, draft an answer to Chet, will you?”↩
- Bundy had asked Komer to speak to Feldman about a proposal made in Bowles’ May 3 letter (Document 264) that Nasser be invited in the near future for a visit in December.↩