Historical Documents - Office of the Historian

Washington, April 10, 1964.

1.: Mr. Bundy presided throughout the meeting.
2.: Yemen. There was a crisis yesterday concerning US vote on the Yemen issue at the UN. Involved were the President, Bundy, Ball, Stevenson, and Rusk. The crisis was not anticipated in advance, either by the State Department or the White House. It involved our backing the British on a vote in the Security Council. The US and the British abstained, and nine others condemned the British. Stevenson called Ball, Rusk, and the President and tried to get a shift in the US position after we had already informed the British that we would go along with them. Bundy wanted a post-mortem by Sam Belk, to see why we got that close to a vote without recognizing the problem. Bundy said it should have been clear to a lot of people, including himself, that we were heading in such a direction. Komer, who is responsible for Yemen, was silent at first, but said yesterday afternoon, he asked State why they had not warned him. Bundy said another question was why the White House had not warned State. There were no hard feelings, but the whole affair made a bad impression on everyone, including the President.

[Here follows discussion of other subjects.]

WYS

Source: National Defense University Library, Special Collections, Taylor Papers, Chairman’s Staff Group, April 1964. Secret; Eyes Only.↩

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