Office of the Historian

974.530/7–2951: Telegram

The Ambassador in Egypt (Caffery) to the Department of State 1

secret
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Cairo, July 29, 1951—3 p. m.

122. I certainly have no objections to USUN (Usun unn July 27, 8 p. m.)2 exploring every possible avenue with Fawzi and approve Gross-Fawzi luncheon talk Monday, and by all means go ahead with mtg suggested by Lacoste (mytel 121, July 28).3 However, we must not lose sight of fact that Fawzi will only be able to act with approval of Egyptian FonMin whose reaction to any proposals will be based on fol factors:

1.
Egyptian public opinion.
2.
Belief that Egypt has at least an arguable legal case (with which some legal experts concur).
3.
Egyptians wld not worry particularly about “blow to prestige” nor defying SC resolution and are a little skeptical about our official protestations of friendship.

For these reasons maximum which we may expect is “alleviation”. Furthermore Egyptians believe that they can detect signs of confusion in our camp.

I remind Dept I talked yesterday on all this with FonMin.

Caffery
  1. Repeated to New York and for information to London.↩
  2. The same as telegram 153 from New York, July 27, p. 801.↩
  3. Telegram 121 from Cairo, July 28, not printed, contained a report from the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs that Lacoste had suggested to Fawzi a “four representatives” meeting to discuss Suez restrictions (974.5301/7–2851).↩