188. Editorial Note
At 9:15 a.m. on August 11, Secretary Dulles met with President Eisenhower to review a number of policy matters, one of which was [Page 347] the question of furnishing Centurion tanks to Iraq. According to Dulles’ memorandum of conversation, the following was said:
“We discussed the matter of Centurion tanks for Iraq. I said we were in somewhat of a dilemma on whether to let the British get the credit for these tanks or to seek credit ourselves, in which case we would get a corresponding debit from Israel. The President reaffirmed his often-expressed view that we should encourage the British to take the lead in the Middle East and not seek to compete with them in that respect. He said that he thought it was better for us to let the British deal in this tank matter directly with the Iraqi.” (Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, Meetings with the President)