273. Information Memorandum From the President’s Special Assistant (Rostow) to President Johnson1
Washington, October 5, 1968, 14 p.m.
Mr. President:
The attached letter from Eshkol to you2 says, in effect:
- —the UAR doesn’t want peace; please don’t get in bed with the Soviet Union on the Middle East;
- —the Israelis are trying to do something with Jordan;
- —please give us the Phantoms;
- —may I come and see you in December in the course of my trip to Latin America?
In the course of this, he has praise for your speech of September 10 (as he interprets it).
You may wish to know that Joe Sisco will be in touch with both the Jordanian and Israeli Foreign Ministers to establish whether the right words spoken by Eban on the November Resolution in his speech scheduled for next Tuesday3 would, in fact, open up negotiations between the two countries under Jarring.
Walt
- Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Israel, Vol. X, Cables and Memos, 6/68–11/68. Secret. A handwritten notation indicates that the memorandum was received at 2:40 p.m.↩
- This letter, dated September 29, was delivered by the Israeli Embassy to the Department of State on October 5 and forwarded to the White House under cover of a memorandum from Executive Secretary Read to Rostow, also dated October 5. (Ibid., Special Head of State Correspondence File, Israel, 8/1/68–12/12/68)↩
- October 8.↩