183. Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation Between the President and the Secretary of State, Washington, September 7, 1956, 9:40 a.m.1
TELEPHONE CALL FROM THE PRESIDENT
The Pres. asked why it wouldn’t be possible for the big nations to buy up all the stock of the Suez Company and give 49% to Egypt and say that is our solution. The Egyptians would get ½ the revenue and have on the Board 3 out of 5 or 4 out of 9 or something like that. We would get all we wanted and they would be in a better position than they were today. The Secretary said he would like to think about this—it was not anything you could give a telephone answer on. The President said in this way the Egyptians would get the Aswan Dam, which is what Nasser wants. The President said he did not know if this was a serious proposal but Tom Stephens had been in and asked why the Company could not be reorganized.2 Nasser might accept this as a face-saving measure. The Secretary said that technically the Suez Canal Company was non-existent at the present time under the Egyptian decree.
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, White House Telephone Conversations. Transcribed by Asbjornson. Another memorandum of this conversation, transcribed at the White House presumably by Whitman, is ibid., Whitman File, Eisenhower Diaries. The two memoranda differ in detail. The memorandum printed here appears to contain a more complete version of the conversation.↩
- The memorandum of this telephone conversation, prepared at the White House, indicates that the President said that the idea to give Egypt 49 percent of the Canal Company stock originated with former Presidential Appointments Secretary Thomas E. Stephens. Eisenhower spoke with Stephens between 8:17 and 8:30 a.m., September 6. (Record of the President’s Daily Appointments; ibid.)↩