168. Memorandum From the Acting Secretary of State to the Deputy Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (Murphy)1
Washington, December 10,
1956.
Just before leaving for the NATO meeting in Paris on the afternoon of December 8, Secretary Dulles discussed with me several matters on Middle East policy.
- (1)
- The Secretary said that he had discussed with Mr. Phleger that morning the tentative draft of a joint resolution which would be presented to Congress by the President at the coming session. The Secretary said that he had a rough draft of his own, which he had compared with two alternate drafts presented by Mr. Phleger, and that he had requested Mr. Phleger to combine them into a single proposal with certain comments of his own thereon. Mr. Phleger is fully cognizant of the Secretary’s views.
- (2)
- The Secretary said that after full consideration he had decided that our policy in the Middle East should be maintained, as at present, on a bilateral basis, and that we should not engage in a multilateral approach such as that which was implicit in the Baghdad Pact. I told the Secretary that I was in full concurrence with his views and that I believed they were also the views of the responsible area heads in the Department.
- (3)
- It is my suggestion that you ask Mr. Rountree to get together with Mr. Henderson and Mr. Phleger as a task force to thoroughly examine the projected joint resolution and have a final draft for the Secretary’s consideration upon his return from Paris.2
H.H.
Jr.