Office of the Historian

287. Message From Prime Minister Eden to President Eisenhower1

London, October 1, 1956.

Harold has told me of his conversation with you.2 I was [Page 619] particularly delighted to hear from him that you were in such splendid form.

You can be sure that we are fully alive to the wider dangers of the Middle East situation. They can be summed up in one word—Russia.

I thought that you would like to see this further message from Bulganin to me.3 I shall not reply for a day or two. There is no doubt in our minds that Nasser, whether he likes it or not, is now effectively in Russian hands, just as Mussolini was in Hitler’s. It would be as ineffective to show weakness to Nasser now in order to placate him as it was to show weakness to Mussolini. The only result was and would be to bring the two together. No doubt your people will have told you of the accumulating evidence of Egyptian plots in Libya, Saudi-Arabia and Iraq. At any moment any of these may be touched off unless we can prove to the Middle East that Nasser is losing. That is why we are so concerned to do everything we can to make the Users’ Club an effective instrument. If your ships under the Panamanian and Liberian flags would follow the example of those under your flag that would greatly help.

I feel sure that anything which you can say or do to show firmness to Nasser at this time will help the peace by giving the Russians pause.

As usual I send you my thoughts in this frank way.4

  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, International File. Top Secret. Delivered to the White House under cover of a note from Coulson to President Eisenhower which reads: “I have been asked to convey to you the enclosed personal message from the Prime Minister.”↩
  2. Reference is to the conversation between Eisenhower and Macmillan on September 25, during the latter’s visit to the United States. No copy of the memorandum for that conversation has been found in the Eisenhower Library or Department of State files, but see Document 264.↩
  3. Attached to the source text but not printed. The letter is briefly described in Full Circle, p. 555.↩
  4. Printed from an unsigned copy. On October 9, Coulson handed Douglas MacArthur II a copy of Eden’s response to Bulganin’s letter, which had been sent to Bulganin on October 6. A copy of the memorandum of this conversation with the attached copy of Eden’s message is in Department of State, Central Files, 641.74/10–956.↩