334. Memorandum From the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy) and Robert W. Komer of the National Security Council Staff to President Johnson1
SUBJECT
- Your Meeting with R.A. Butler
[Here follows discussion of another subject.]
The main topic Butler wants to take up is the Mideast (it’s a commentary in itself on UK policy that when they say Mideast they mean Aden and Yemen). Butler’s pitch to Rusk is that the British intend to fight fire with fire, and take the offensive against Nasser in the UN and in Yemen.
We’re from Missouri on this one, and healthy skepticism is the order of the day. We simply doubt the British have thought through this matter. First, we don’t see how going to war with Nasser (the British have already been needling him in Yemen covertly for months) will get him out of Yemen and relieve the threat to Aden. As he’s already shown, he’s much more likely to send more troops down there and raise more hell about getting UK colonialist bases off Arab soil. We can’t win in the UN either, on a straight anti-colonial issue. Just as shooting up Harib, it will hurt more than it helps.
Worse yet, this is a game where Nasser is likely to up the ante. Jousting with him right now might well generate an across the board US/UK falling out with the Arabs, with repercussions on Libya as well as Aden, and even on our oil. This wouldn’t be just a war with Nasser. All Arabs but the Saudis are highly suspicious of the US on Israel and the Jordan Waters, especially in an election year. They’d all back the UAR as a matter of Arab solidarity if we backed the UK against the UAR. But even if we don’t join the UK, we’ll suffer too, in Libya for example, from the Arab backlash against them. So we hope you’ll go further than denying Butler’s plea, and seek to persuade him our way.
For what it’s worth, even the UK Foreign Office experts seem to join with ours in worrying over the bloody-mindedness of their ministers. This is just not the time to start a war with Nasser—especialy one which, like the Aswan Dam fiasco, we’re not likely to win. And if [Page 636] Labor comes in next October, UK policy will probably become more like ours.