Office of the Historian

Clifford Papers

Memorandum of Conference on Palestine, March 24, 1948, Prepared by the President’s Special Counsel (Clifford)

March 24, 1948

Conference was held in the Cabinet Room and was attended by the President; Secretary of State Marshall, Loy Henderson, Chip Bohlen and Dean Rusk of the State Department; Howard McGrath, Oscar Ewing; Matt Connelly; Charles Ross; Dave Niles;1 and Clark Clifford.

Lengthy discussion was held about various solutions for solving the problem of Palestine. One of the main subjects discussed was the lifting of the embargo on arms to the Middle East.

Those present at the conference, outside of the State Department representatives, were in favor of lifting the arms embargo as soon as possible. General Marshall stated that they were working on plans for a truce and that it was felt that there was a good possibility that a truce could be effectuated. Oscar Ewing thought it was important that it be ascertained as soon as possible if a truce could be obtained and if not that the embargo should be lifted. General Marshall was asked if the decision regarding a truce could be made by Thursday, April 1, which was the President’s next Press Conference. A State Department representative stated that this was too soon but that they should know definitely within two weeks of the date of the meeting. This meant that they would have a definite answer on the question of a truce by April 7.

The general understanding was that, if they could not report that they had been successful in obtaining a truce by April 7, steps would be taken to release the embargo.2

Clark M. Clifford
  1. J. Howard McGrath, United States Senator from Rhode Island; Oscar R. Ewing, Administrator of the Federal Security Agency; Matthew J. Connelly, Appointments Secretary to President Truman; Charles G. Ross, Press Secretary to the President; and David K. Niles, Administrative Assistant to the President.↩
  2. Secretary Marshall testified in Executive Session on the Palestine problem before the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate on March 24. A staff member of the Committee, in a letter of May 23, 1974, has informed the editors that the Committee prepared no stenographic record of his testimony. The session began at 10 a. m., and for one hour and fifty minutes heard Secretary Marshall discuss the entire range of American foreign policy. The New York Times of March 25, 1948, p. 1, has printed an account of the Secretary’s testimony on the Palestine problem as received from “informants of the utmost reliability.”

    The letter of May 23, 1974 is filed under Department of State Accession No. P740059–1789.

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