Office of the Historian

499. Memorandum From the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern, South Asian, and African Affairs (Rountree) to the Acting Secretary of State1

Washington, July 25, 1956.

SUBJECT

  • Consultations with Respect to Egyptian Situation

Discussion:

Mr. Solom gave me your message that you wished me to consider urgently whether departmental and/or interdepartmental committees should be established to follow with particular care current Egyptian developments.

As you know, the special working group … is still in existence.2 On it are representatives of Defense, CIA, C, S/P and NEA. Randy Higgs, Raymond Hare, Francis Russell and representatives of IO and EUR participate as necessary and as they, themselves, may desire.

Since the current Egyptian situation inevitably involves … aspects of our policy, I believe departmental and interdepartmental coordination can best be effected through continuation of the arrangements which already are in effect. We are having a meeting of this group this afternoon, in order to go over the situation generally and to exchange views on what steps should be taken.3

Meanwhile, in light of the overnight indication that Nasser might demand the withdrawal of our Point IV Operation in Egypt, we are preparing a draft of an announcement which we might make.4 While our action would necessarily depend in large measure upon the precise nature of Nasser’s representations, if the tone of the press tickers is to be taken as any indication of what we might expect, it is likely that our announcement would have to cover all other forms of aid to Egypt, including development assistance, PL 480 sales, CARE, etc. We are already in touch with ICA on this [Page 897] question and shall coordinate our plans and actions closely with them.

I hope that these arrangements meet with your approval. However, if you desire any special consultative group, please let me know.

  1. Source: Department of State, S/S–NEA Files: Lot 61 D 417, Omega #10. Top Secret; Omega. Initialed by Hoover, indicating his approval.↩
  2. Reference is to the Middle East Policy Planning Group.↩
  3. According to the summary minutes of this meeting of the Middle East Policy Planning Group, those in attendance approved a draft statement for possible use in case Nasser asked the United States to withdraw its aid mission. The group also agreed to recommend a delay in the delivery of U.S. and French arms to Israel and a postponement of the announcement of Operation Stockpile to avoid giving credence to the Egyptian assertion that the Aswan Dam decision demonstrated that the United States favored Israel over the Arab states. (Department of State, NEA Files: Lot 59 D 518, Omega—Meetings of MEPPG (agenda, memos of conv., etc.), 4/9/56 to 6/30/56)↩
  4. See infra.↩