Office of the Historian

491. Memorandum of a Conversation, Executive Office Building, Washington, November 4, 1956, 9:30 a.m.1

Washington, November 4, 1956, 9:30 a.m.

PRESENT

  • Dr. Flemming, ODM (Chairman)
  • Secretary Wilson
  • Acting Secretary Hoover
  • Admiral Radford
  • Governor Adams
  • General Persons
  • Colonel Goodpaster
  • Mr. MacArthur
  • (2 from Interior)2

SUBJECT

  • Possible Activation of the Emergency Oil Committee

This meeting was called to discuss whether the US should take initiative in activating the emergency oil committee in New York in view of the situation resulting from the destruction of the pipelines3 and the blocking of the Canal. After very considerable discussion of the pros and cons, the meeting concluded with the following agreements:

1.
Nothing would be done today and no initiative would be taken.
2.
The ODM would take the lead in getting an inventory of the stocks on hand and requirements of the smaller European countries, with a view to knowing what their demands were and estimating what hardships would be entailed. (This request was made by Governor Adams.)
3.
Dr. Flemming, the chairman, said he would keep in touch with Mr. Hoover.
4.
It was also fully agreed that nothing would be done until the committee had been called to consider this matter again. In other words, if anyone had any ideas, they would be submitted to Dr. Flemming and he would see to it that a meeting was called.

The main objection to taking initiative today was that since it would entail close cooperation with the British and French, our moral position might be impaired at a most critical moment and great damage done to our present position, particularly with the Asian and African countries. Furthermore, it was felt that one of the best cards we had to bring the British and French to take a constructive position was the way we handled the oil matter. If we rushed into cooperation with them, we would perhaps be giving [Page 975] away a vital card. The chairman summed it up by saying he understood the consensus of the matter to be that we should play hard-to-get and let the initiative come from the European countries.

  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 840.04/11–456. Secret. Drafted by MacArthur.↩
  2. A marginal notation on another copy of this memorandum indicates that the two Interior Department officials were Secretary Seaton and Hugh Stewart, (ibid., Secretary’s Memoranda of Conversation: Lot 64 D 199)↩
  3. On November 3, three IPC pumping stations in Syria, including the main one, were sabotaged. See vol. XIII, p. 594.↩