186. Memorandum From the Acting Secretary of State to the Secretary of State1
At the President’s suggestion I accompanied Mr. Robert Anderson to the White House this afternoon at 4:30 for a briefing on his recent negotiations in Egypt and Israel. The three of us remained alone for almost 2 hours.
Mr. Anderson described in some detail the conversations he had had with Nasser and Ben Gurion, giving a considerable amount of background and local color. Mr. Francis Russell will give you a memorandum on the substance of Mr. Anderson’s report.2
While many alternatives were discussed, no attempt was made to formulate a definitive course of action.
However, we seemed to be agreed on the following:
- (1)
- Mr. Anderson said that he believed neither Israel nor the Arab States wanted war but that the situation was inflammable due to great emotional stress and the immediate proximity of hostile armed forces.
- (2)
- A suitable tripartite resolution should be introduced in the Security Council at an early opportunity.3
- (3)
- We should make every attempt to try to effect a split between Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
- (4)
- We should consider transmitting letters from the President to Nasser and Ben Gurion in which the President would express his extreme disappointment at the inability of the two sides to get together and our hope that some further conversations could be carried on.
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, Meetings with the President. Top Secret; Personal and Private.↩
- Not found in Department of State files.↩
- See Document 206.↩