Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume XXI, Near East Region; Arabian Peninsula

311. Memorandum From the President’s Special Assistant (Rostow) to President Johnson¹

Washington, July 1, 1968.

SUBJECT

• Your Meeting with Saudi Crown Prince—11:30 a.m. Tuesday, July 2

Your main reason in seeing Crown Prince Khalid is to reassure King Faisal of our continued friendship. Faisal is disillusioned by what he considers our support for Israel. He fears we have washed our hands of the Middle East.

The Crown Prince is less strong than Faisal. But he is intelligent and can talk substance if you get him going. I suggest the following leads:

1. You have the highest respect for King Faisal. You recall with pleasure his visit here. You continue to regard him as one of your best friends in the Middle East. How is he?

2. You know that the King is deeply concerned about Israel’s continued occupation of Arab territory. You want him to know that we are doing everything we can to bring about a settlement that the Arabs as well as the Israelis would find honorable. This hasn’t been easy, but a fair settlement remains our objective. Would he like to say anything about this?

3. You have just had a good talk with the Shah of Iran and would like to hear about the Shah’s recent stopover in Saudi Arabia. You would be interested in anything the Crown Prince has to say about the future of Saudi Arabian relations in the Persian Gulf.

4. You would like to explain your purposes in South Vietnam and at the Paris talks. (The Saudis are interested because they see our steadfastness in Vietnam as a measure of how seriously we’d stick by the security assurances we have given Saudi Arabia over the years.)

5. You hope the Crown Prince has received all the medical help he wished. (He had a routine medical checkup at Bethesda last week.)

The Crown Prince had dinner at the White House with President Roosevelt in September 1943 when he was here with then Foreign Minister Faisal as an advisor.² One ice-breaker might be to ask him about that or to recall yourself a little bit about President Roosevelt at that time.

The Crown Prince speaks only Arabic. An interpreter, Luke Battle, and his Country Director, will be available.

W. W. Rostow ³

1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Saunders Files, Saudi Arabia, 1/1/68-1/20/69. Secret.
2. For documentation on the 1943 visit to the United States of Prince Faisal and Prince Khalid, see Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. IV, pp. 840–852.
3. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.