Preface

The publication Foreign Relations of the United States constitutes the official record of the foreign policy of the United States. The importance of publishing the complete and comprehensive documentary record of U.S. diplomacy was set forth in an order by Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg on March 26, 1925, and supplemented and revised by Department of State regulations in the Foreign Affairs Manual. (2 FAM 1350-1353)

The Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, is directed by the Foreign Affairs Manual to collect, edit, and publish the authoritative diplomatic record, including papers from other concerned government agencies. (1 FAM 857) Official historians of the Department of State seek out relevant official foreign affairs documentation in other agencies and documentary repositories bearing on subjects documented in the volumes of the series. The topics to be documented are determined by the Editor in Chief of the series in concert with the compilers of individual volumes.

Secretary of State Kellogg’s order, as codified in the Foreign Affairs Manual, remains the official guidance for editorial preparation of the series:

Principles of Selection for Foreign Relations, 1955–1957, Volume XVII

The documentation in this particular volume was selected by Dr. Nina J. Noring of the Office of the Historian from the Department of State’s centralized and decentralized files and the records of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library. For a complete listing of particular collections consulted, see the List of Sources.

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In selecting documents for inclusion, the editors placed primary emphasis on high-level discussions within the U.S. Government, National Security Council and Department of State policy papers, and high-level exchanges with Egypt and Israel. Documentation is also presented on the full range of Arab-Israeli issues under consideration during this period as well as related Anglo-American discussions.

Editorial Methodology

The documents are presented chronologically according to Washington time. Incoming telegrams from U.S. missions are placed according to the time of receipt in the Department of State, rather than the time of transmission; memoranda of conversations are placed according to the time and date of the conversation, rather than the date the memorandum was drafted. When a source text does not indicate a particular date or time of day, the editors have used the President’s and the Secretary of State’s daily appointment records, internal and other documentary evidence, and at times the logic of events to determine, as closely as possible, the precise placement of the document.

Editorial treatment of the documents published in the Foreign Relations series follows Office style guidelines, supplemented by guidance from the Editor in Chief and the chief technical editor. The source text is reproduced as exactly as possible, including marginalia or other notations, which are described in footnotes. Obvious typographical errors are corrected, but other mistakes and omissions in the source text are corrected by bracketed insertions: a correction is set in italic type; an omission in roman type. Brackets are also used to indicate text that has been omitted by the compiler because it deals with an unrelated subject. Ellipses are inserted to replace material that remained classified after the declassification review process. Ellipses of three or four periods identify excisions of less than a paragraph; ellipses of seven periods spread across the page identify excisions of an entire paragraph or more. All ellipses and brackets that appear in the source text are so identified by footnotes.

The first footnote to each document indicates the document’s source, original classification, distribution, drafting information, and, in the case of telegrams, the time of receipt in the Department of State. The source footnote also provides the background of important documents and policies, indicates if the President or Secretary of State read the document, and records its ultimate disposition.

Editorial notes and additional annotation summarize pertinent material not printed in this volume, indicate the location of additional documentary sources, describe diplomatic reportage and key events, and provide summaries of and citations to public statements that supplement and elucidate the printed documents. Information derived [Page V] from memoirs of participants and other first-hand accounts, available when this volume was originally compiled in 1979, has been used where possible to supplement the official record.

Declassification Review Procedures

Declassification review of the documents selected for publication is conducted by the Division of Historical Documents Review, Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Department of State. The review is made in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, the Privacy Act, and the criteria established in Executive Order 12356 regarding:

1)

military plans, weapons, or operations;

2)

the vulnerabilities or capabilities of systems, installations, projects, or plans relating to the national security;

3)

foreign government information;

4)

intelligence activities (including special activities), or intelligence sources or methods;

5)

foreign relations or foreign activities of the United States;

6)

scientific, technological, or economic matters relating to national security;

7)

U.S. Government programs for safeguarding nuclear materials or facilities;

8)

cryptology; and

9)

a confidential source.

Declassification decisions entailed concurrence of the appropriate geographic and functional bureaus in the Department of State and of other concerned agencies of the U.S. Government, and communication with foreign governments regarding documents or information of those governments. The principle of declassification review is to release as much information as is consistent with contemporary requirements of national security and sound foreign relations; some documents or portions of documents are necessarily withheld.

Dr. Noring compiled this volume under the supervision of Editor in Chief John P. Glennon. M. Paul Claussen provided initial planning and direction. Lynn Chase and Bret D. Bellamy of the Historian’s Office prepared the lists of sources, names, and abbreviations. Rita M. Baker, Chief of the Editing Division of the Historian’s Office, performed the technical editing. Barbara Ann Bacon of the Publishing Services Division (Paul M. Washington, Chief) oversaw production of the volume. Max Franke prepared the index.