454. Editorial Note
At 8:40 a.m. on November 1 Secretary Dulles telephoned President Eisenhower. Their conversation went as follows:
“The Sec. said we are going to have to make important decisions here today and don’t know how much time we should spend at NSC. There is the question of our attitude toward the possible sanctions against the Israelis and the GA meets at 5. The Sec. would like time with the Pres. this a.m. NSC is mostly about the policy for satellite countries which the Sec. thinks is academic as the situation has pretty much taken care of itself. The Sec. will make a report on Suez and the Pres. said it would be a good thing to have a general discussion re the ME. The Pres. referred to what Lippmann said and the Sec. said he has not written anything favorable for 4 years and his facts are wrong. The Pres. also referred to what Stevenson said. The Pres. said we should not do anything that makes us look as if we are trying to get an excuse to pick on Israel. If we do anything against them, then we have to do something against Fr and Br. The Sec. referred to the statement re living up to the Tripartite Agreement. If we give aid to Israel when she is an aggressor it makes a mockery of everything. We have to have a position by 5.” (Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, White House Telephone Conversations)
Another memorandum of this telephone conversation, prepared in the Office of the President, is ibid., Whitman File, Eisenhower Diaries. The memorandum of discussion of the November 1 meeting of the National Security Council is infra. The syndicated column by Walter Lippman to which Eisenhower referred was entitled “Disaster in the Middle East” and appeared in the Washington Post on November 1.