270. Editorial Note
At 2:45 p.m. on February 5, in a telephone conversation with Reuben Robertson, the President discussed the problem of military assistance to Saudi Arabia. The memorandum of the telephone conversation includes the following exchange:
“The President told of letter just received from King of Saudi Arabia, parts of which he read on phone.
“As result of it, the President suggests Mr. Robertson’s people get together with State (preferably Bob Murphy) to see if we could revise the program—to go up to a general cost of, say, $50 million, in training personnel, ammunition, reconditioned equipment, etc.
“As for the sale of equipment, the President thinks there should be some combination; that they ought to buy some of it, pay us a certain proportion of the cost, & perhaps we could absorb some of the price.
“As for the economic side, Defense would not get into that.
“The President thought we might tell them that we believe that loans are the best (long-term cheap loans), where there are non-self-liquidating returns. The President is writing to the King to say we are looking into it; meanwhile, Defense & State should work on getting something better. The program now seems to be the same as was discussed before the King came here; he cannot go back & report that he has done nothing better.
“Mr. Robertson said he will do all he can to help liberalize it.
“Mr. Robertson had lunch today with the Crown Prince of Iraq, & was very favorably impressed both with the Crown Prince & with his Chief of Staff. The President saw the Crown Prince this morning, & agreed he is a splendid person.” (Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, Eisenhower Diaries, Memoranda of Telephone Conversations)
At 5 p.m. Robertson telephoned the President. The following exchange occurred: [Page 467]
“He wanted to let the President know that they had not yet laid any proposition before King Saud’s people. Plan to do so at 5 o’clock today, when Bob Murphy is seeing them.
“They have gone through it entirely. Have worked it up to $50 million on defense training equipment (which is new to them); their shopping list of $110 million—18 M47’s, 18 M41’s; also $20 million on the economic side. And this is quite an impressive total, Mr. Robertson thinks.
“He said his people are quite concerned about going higher than $70 million on the grant basis, into the $100 million, where we do not have a bilateral—they feel it might be very difficult on the Hill, & subsequently.
“The President said when we finally get it through the Congress, we will probably have a bilateral—if he is our friend. The King, in his letter, said we are just going through the same old drill, saddling off on them reconditioned equipment. But the President’s answer explained that this equipment was just as good & would save money, & pointed out that combat equipment should not be worn out on training. The President feels his Councillors have been telling him that he is getting nothing better.
“Mr. Robertson said he could not reach Secy. Dulles; but that Bob Murphy & Gordon Gray say they are on entire new ground. For example, in Air Force they cannot absorb the 75 F86’s that they want, & we are getting 40 million beyond that in the F86’s. But he said we would not prepare to tie that down until they got their training program going, & their men to come here.
“The President suggested that, after today’s meeting, if they find things in pretty good shape, they should let Secy. Dulles know.
“Mr. Robertson said Bob Murphy is conducting meeting without Defense sitting in; will call upon them only if he sees some lack of harmony.” (Ibid.)
In a further conversation at 5:46 p.m. Dulles and Robertson discussed the question of assistance to the Saudis. The memorandum of conversation reads as follows:
“The Sec returned the call and R said he had a talk with Murphy—the Pres had called re meeting the Saud Picture and Gordon, Bob and R have pursued it and are as far together as we can be. The Sec said we want to hold a little back because they are great traders. But in the end the Pres will have to throw something into the kitty. R said the Pres was afraid we were holding too much back here. The Sec said the Pres had a letter from Saud indicating disappointment. The Sec was not as much frightened as the Pres because we had not put our cards on the table. We have to be careful because of the Israeli and political repercussions here. R does not think we changed anything because Bob and Gordon had gotten up to the point where Quarles, Wilson and Gordon felt we were aimed before the meeting started which involved 50 million in training in the non-grant side—I think that is what he said. The Sec said fine and R said it looks fine to us.” (Ibid., Dulles Papers, General Telephone Conversations)