PPS Files, Lot 64F563, Near and Middle East, 1947–1948
Draft Report Prepared by the Staff of the National Security Council1
The Position of the United States With Respect to Palestine
[Here follow thirteen numbered paragraphs presenting the problem and an analysis.]
[Page 632]conclusions
14. Any solution of the Palestine problem which invites direct Soviet participation in administration, policing, or military operations in Palestine is a danger to the security of the United States.
15. Any solution of the Palestine problem which results in the continued hostility of the Arab world toward the United States will bring about conditions which endanger the security of the United States.
16. The US should continue support for the Partition Plan in the UN by all measures short of the use of outside armed force to impose the Plan upon the people of Palestine,
(The military members of the Staff do not concur in the above conclusion and offer the following as a substitute)
The United States should alter its previous policy of support for partition and seek another solution to the problem. In so doing, United States should propose that, in view of the changed conditions as set forth in the Analysis, the UN Security Council request that a special session of the General Assembly be convoked to reconsider the Palestine problem.
17. The United States should urge the Government of the United Kingdom to continue to exercise its mandate over Palestine in the event of reconsideration of the Palestine problem by the General Assembly. The United States should also support a resolution by the UN Security Council requesting the UK to take this action.
18. In the event of reconsideration of the Palestine problem by the General Assembly, the United States should propose the creation of a trusteeship in Palestine with the UN Trusteeship Council as the administering authority. If necessary, this proposal should include provision for an international force to maintain internal order during a transitional period.
19. The United States should oppose dispatch of armed forces to Palestine for the purpose of enforcing the Partition Plan of November 29, 1947, against the objections of the inhabitants of Palestine.
20. The United States should immediately urge all Arab states to refrain from any act of aggression against Palestine.
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Circulated to the Departments of State, Army, Navy, and Air Force for comment on the consultant (“Kennan-Sherman-Wedemeyer-Weyland”) level (attached memorandum of February 18 by Mr. Kennan to Under Secretary Lovett).
In a second attached memorandum, this one sent on February 19 by George H. Butler of the Policy Planning Staff to Carlton Savage, Executive Secretary of the Staff, appears the following: “As I told you and Mr. Kennan, Mr. Humelsine handed this [the draft paper] to me this morning. He told me that Mr. Lovett had said that S/P should keep the NSC paper for the present, that he did not want it circulated in the Department, and that the Palestine problem is being worked on by high Department officers.
“At his staff meeting this morning, Mr. Lovett cautioned all not to express any views to anyone about Palestine. He said that the problem was not one for unilateral decision by State; and that he does not know what the Department’s policy is.” Carlisle H. Humelsine was Director of the Executive Secretariat.
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