70. Memorandum From the Counselor of the Department of State (MacArthur) to the Under Secretary of State (Hoover)1
During the course of a conversation with the Secretary this afternoon, Sir Roger Makins said he gathered that the Alpha exercise was proceeding satisfactorily. He said that the British fully supported Byroade’s initiative in his recent talk with Nasser2 and had sent a message to Stevenson to express support for the line Byroade had taken with the Egyptians. The British felt that Byroade’s action had been constructive and were pleased that there had been no violent reaction from Nasser. The Secretary agreed that Byroade’s talk had been useful and explained that it had come about in the course of a long dinner and conversation with Nasser, and not as a result of instructions to Byroade specifically to raise this question. Sir Roger indicated awareness of this and repeated his assertion that the British thought this had been useful.
The Secretary then commented that there seemed to have been a little difficulty with respect to Jordan and the Northern Tier, but he understood that this was now straightened out. He had sent instructions that we were neither to encourage nor discourage Jordan or the other Arab States from joining the Turk-Iraq Pact. Sir Roger said he was familiar with the instructions we had sent and felt they were satisfactory.
The Secretary then said that there was one very real difficulty we have which he was not entirely certain the British were aware of. He said that if Jordan now joined the Turk-Iraq Pact, it would not only increase the difficulty in giving any military assistance to Jordan but would also very substantially increase the difficulty of the US in giving any military aid to Iraq. The US Government had been under heavy pressure from the Jewish elements in this country for extending military aid to Iraq. It had justified such aid on the grounds of the Northern Tier concept and the fact that Iraq and Israel were not territorially contiguous. If Jordan joined in an alliance with Iraq, the justification for giving military assistance to Iraq would be seriously compromised. Sir Roger said he could well understand our problem. The concern of the British Government had been that if the US took a position that Jordan should not join the [Page 147] Turk-Iraq Treaty, the Egyptians would be encouraged to continue and to step up their efforts together with the Syrians and the Saudi Arabians at the expense of Iraq and the general situation in the area.
- Source: Department of State,S/S–NEA Files: Lot 61 D 417, Alpha Volume 2. Top Secret; Alpha; Limited Distribution. Addressed also to Murphy,Bowie,Merchant,Allen, and the Executive Secretariat.↩
- See Document 67.↩