501.BB Palestine/5–449
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Secretary of State
Item No. 3—President Weizmann’s Visit
The President went over the four points1 which we hoped he would stress with President Weizmann. He approved of them all.
After luncheon I got separated from the President and Mr. Weizmann and involved with other guests. The President, Mr. Weizmann, the Israeli Ambassador, and the Vice President discussed the four points.
The President told me, after the interview, that he had made all four points. He said that President Weizmann had taken a helpful attitude on all of them. He said that the internationalization of Jerusalem could be worked out. He foresaw no insoluble difficulty in the boundary matters. He said that Israel would help financially with the refugees. I am not clear as to what was said about repatriation, although I know that the President pressed him on this matter.
As we were leaving, President Weizmann asked the President again for assistance on UN membership. I said that the Israeli representatives [Page 944] could really be of more assistance than we could if they would show a conciliatory attitude along the lines mentioned to Mr. Weizmann by the President.
As we were parting, President Weizmann said that he thought it might be a good idea for him to have a talk with me. I think that it might be worthwhile to follow this up while they are here.2
- The four points were set forth in a memorandum of April 23 from Mr. Rusk to Secretary Acheson for his conversation with President Truman concerning the latter’s luncheon with President Weizmann later the same day. They dealt with the position of the United States on the internationalization of Jerusalem, boundary settlement, the refugee question and Israeli membership in the United Nations (867N.01/4–2349). The luncheon was actually held on April 25.↩
- The editors have found no documentation in the Department of State files indicating a followup conversation with President Weizmann.↩