Office of the Historian

399. Telegram From the Department of State to the Embassy in Turkey1

Washington, September 16, 1957—10:51 p.m.

841. For Ambassador. Please immediately orally inform government to which you are accredited:

In view of virtual certainty that Soviet Union will launch an attack in UNGA on Turkey and the Western Powers for alleged [Page 705] plotting against and intimidation of Syria and will probably introduce some resolution along the lines of recent Soviet notes and utterances, the US deems it essential to take an initiative. Accordingly Secretary Dulles in his opening address on Thursday plans to recite the background of Soviet plotting in the Middle East, to indicate a revival of that plotting over the past two years and to point to Syria as the place where indirect aggression is being plotted in violation of “the Essentials for Peace Resolution” of December 1, 19492 which, among other things, called upon every nation “to refrain from any threats or acts, direct or indirect, aimed at impairing the freedom, independence or integrity of any state”. He may also suggest that the General Assembly adopt a resolution requesting the Security Council to designate the non-permanent members to investigate the situation in Syria.

United States officials will discuss this matter at New York with British and Lebanese Foreign Ministers. However, in the case of the government to which you are accredited and the other two addressee Arab states, we feel that guidance to their UNGA delegations should in the first instance come from their home governments.3

Murphy
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 320/9–1657. Secret; Priority. Drafted by Rountree and approved by Dulles. Also sent priority to Amman and Baghdad and repeated to London and Beirut.↩
  2. U.N. doc. A/1167. For text, see Foreign Relations, 1949, vol. II, pp. 143–145.↩
  3. In response to this telegram, Ambassador Mallory spoke with Jordanian Foreign Minister Abd al-Hadi and subsequently reported that Abd al-Hadi considered a statement by Dulles to be desirable and suggested that references to Syria’s plotting against its neighbors be in general terms without reciting the names of neighboring countries. (Telegram 538 from Amman, September 18; Department of State, Central Files, 783.00/9–1857)↩