400. Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation Between the President and the Secretary of State, Washington, October 28, 1956, 7 p.m.1
The President called about 7:00 p.m. to find out if anything significant had happened in my talk with the Israeli Ambassador. I told him that I had strongly expressed our concern and the difficulty we had in interpreting Israeli mobilization as purely defensive in view of the preoccupation of Egypt in other matters; the disintegration [Page 811] of Jordan and the suspension of Iraqi troop movements into Jordan. I said that the Ambassador had merely reiterated his belief that the mobilization was “defensive”.
The President said that he was concerned about his trip to Florida and was wondering whether to go or not. He said, however, that he assumed that we would have news before his scheduled departure at 8:30 a.m.2 He asked as to whether or not there were any aggressive actions on the part of the Israelis.
I telephoned the President about 9 p.m. to tell him that I had checked on Israeli balances in New York and that there had been no recent significant withdrawals. I said I thought this was a good sign as the Israelis would doubtless fear that if they took an active aggression we would block their balances.
The President thanked me for this information.