Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Arab-Israeli Dispute; United Arab Republic; North Africa, Volume XIII

155. Memorandum of a Conversation, Department of State, Washington, June 27, 1960, 11:30 a.m.¹

Washington, June 27, 1960, 11:30 a.m.

SUBJECT

• Israel’s Request for Military Assistance

PARTICIPANTS

• United States
  • The Secretary
  • The Under Secretary
  • NEA—Assistant Secretary G. Lewis Jones
  • NE—Armin H. Meyer
  • NE—William L. Hamilton
• Israel
  • Foreign Minister Golda Meir
  • Ambassador Avraham Harman
  • Minister Aryeh Manor

Mrs. Meir renewed Israel’s request for military assistance after an exchange of amenities in which the Secretary congratulated her on receiving honorary degrees at the University of Wisconsin and Smith College and she expressed Israel’s deep appreciation for the position taken by Ambassador Lodge in the Eichmann debate at the Security Council.

Mrs. Meir reported that Prime Minister Ben-Gurion was very pleased by his meetings with the President and the Secretary. She added he was grateful for the time and thought the United States Government had given to Israel’s problems, as well as for the generous offer of early warning equipment. However, Israel remained seriously troubled by two questions still outstanding: 1) Prime Minister Ben-Gurion’s request for Hawk missiles and 2) the question of financing the large additional expenditures which the acquisition of arms would entail.

Mrs. Meir said there was little she could add to the presentations made by the Prime Minister and Ambassador Harman except to say that recent international developments have not been such as to permit any diminution of Israel’s concern. She enumerated that UAR’s continued acquisitions of military supplies; intelligence reports that military headquarters in Cairo had a unit consisting of a Soviet general and his staff; reports of Syrian units being trained at the brigade and divisional level in the use of chemical warfare; Nasser’s unrelenting bellicosity; and the failure of the Summit which might send the Soviets in pursuit, not of war, but trouble in the Near East with Nasser as a willing agent.

She described the Hawk as the only weapon currently available which could meet Israel’s particular circumstances of having only four airfields and no defense in depth. Only the Hawk could assure Israel of getting its aircraft into the air and having fields for them to return to after combat. She expressed appreciation of production difficulties but urged that Israel be assured now that Hawks would be supplied when they became available. In the meantime Israel wanted some of its personnel given training so that they would have the necessary technical competence when the missiles themselves became available.

The Secretary remarked that training facilities are at least as difficult a problem as the availability of the weapon. Personnel qualified to instruct in its use are committed for a long time to come. He added, however, that Israel’s problem was under study continuously.

Mrs. Meir said that the Prime Minister had been most happy with the assurances he had received that sympathetic consideration would be given to his request. The Secretary replied he had not been in a position to talk about specific weapons. His assurances were with regard to the sincerity of this government’s desire to help.

Mrs. Meir turned to the financial aspects of Israel’s arms modernization program and indicated the importance of Israel’s continuing its present economic development and progress towards economic independence. The Government had revised its investment law and done as much as it could to provide a climate attractive to private investment which, she said, is beginning to respond in an encouraging manner. Each new investment in the private sector attracts the interest of others. If it were necessary to interrupt this process in order to divert resources to armaments not only would progress be slowed in the Government sector’s capital investment but private investors from abroad would be seized with new misgivings.

The Secretary pointed out that Mr. Dillon and Ambassador Harman had discussed economic aid prospects but the United States was seriously encumbered at the moment by the perennial question of what Congress would give the Department to work with. The end of the Congressional period is always difficult, he said, and this year is no exception. The Administration cannot predict what final form the Appropriations Act will assume.

Ambassador Harman and Mrs. Meir underscored the desirability of assistance of a sort which would provide immediate budgetary support. United States assistance on projects which are eminently desirable from Israel’s standpoint but which can be delayed two or three years is not the answer. What is required is assistance that will enable Israel to continue projects of a high priority which would have to be suspended this year if Israel were obliged to finance arms purchases with its own resources.

Under Secretary Dillon said the United States will have considerable difficulty this year extending aid of the nature Israel has in mind. To an extent even greater than heretofore, the law ties the United States closely to specific projects. There is a real need for greater flexibility, and legislation is being prepared for consideration by the next Administration recommending criteria more similar to those of the Export-Import Bank for development loans. In a year’s time, he added, this might make it easier to consider the type of assistance Israel desires.

Reverting to missiles, Mrs. Meir inquired whether there is any prospect for training of Israel personnel in manning the Hawk. Both the Secretary and Mr. Dillon held out little or no encouragement, the latter commenting that training capacity is committed until 1962 or 1963.

Ambassador Harman said that what is indicated, perhaps, is a “gradualist” approach, a scheduling of dates on which various phases of training might be undertaken. The Secretary stated that prospects are not bright, developments in the weapons field being so rapid and unpredictable that a commitment today, according to the scientists, would be meaningless tomorrow.

The Under Secretary remarked on the impracticability of placing reliance on any one weapon. Even if Hawk missiles were available to Israel by 1963–64 her potential enemies might by then have acquired surface to surface missiles thus rendering the Hawk worthless inasmuch as it is purely an anti-aircraft weapon.

Mrs. Meir emphasized the importance of Israel maintaining a certain parity with the Arabs, qualitatively, rather than numerically. Israel had no fears of the MIG 17 but the UAR now has or soon will have the MIG 19, and beyond that is the MIG 21. Mr. Dillon observed that United States technicians were more optimistic concerning Israel’s position vis-à-vis the MIG 19, considering it as only fractionally superior, if at all, to the Super Mystere, the balance being redressed by the superior training of Israel personnel. He added that if Israel were to receive the French Mirage it would have something United States technicians consider far ahead of the MIG 19.

The Secretary said that the Department had a full appreciation of Israel’s very difficult defense problems and does not like to appear to be dragging its heels. It will keep Israel’s request under review, he said.

Mrs. Meir concluded by asking the Secretary if she could inform Prime Minister Ben-Gurion that what was said to him, during his visit here, still stood as a commitment. The Secretary repeated that his commitment was in terms of sympathetic consideration of Israel’s problem.²

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 784A.5–MSP/6–2760. Secret; Eyes Only. Drafted by Hamilton on June 28, initialed by Jones and Herter, and approved by S on June 28. A briefing memorandum for Herter, June 24, is ibid., 611/84A/6–2460. A brief summary of the conversation was transmitted to Tel Aviv in telegram 1000, June 28. (Ibid., 784A.56/6–2860)
2. On June 28, Secretary of the Treasury Anderson telephoned Herter to say that he had discussed the financing of the arms request with Meir on June 27. A memorandum of their conversation is in the Eisenhower Library, Herter Papers, Telephone Conversations. On June 29, Harman discussed Hawk missiles and the electronics package with Assistant Secretary of Defense Irwin along similar lines. A memorandum of that conversation is in Department of State, Central Files, 784A.56/6–2960.