Office of the Historian

106. Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation Between the Secretary of State in Washington and the Representative at the United Nations (Lodge) in New York, February 17, 1957, 4:35 p.m.1

Washington, February 17, 1957, 4:35 p.m.

TELEPHONE CALL TO AMBASSADOR LODGE

The Sec said we are issuing the aide-mémoire and a statement by the Pres.2 The Sec said for L’s info and Hammarskjold, Eban and Meir were going back to Tel Aviv to discuss the matter further with the Cabinet. The Sec said he believed Eban was shaken by the consequences of Israeli policy and would like the opportunity to present the case personally to Ben Gurion and the Cabinet. The Sec said he was asking for time, but he, the Sec, had not held out much encouragement. (I missed a portion of this conversation while answering the other phone.)3 The Sec said the UN was studying the position; he hoped something might come out of the Feb 2 second resolution.

The Sec reported on his conversation with Knowland the day before.4 The Sec said K had said that if we backed up sanctions against Israel it would be a parting of the ways; he would resign from the US UN Delegation and fight us. L. said he thought we could stand that. The Sec said yes, but with the Democrats and now half the Republicans playing partisan politics, there was not much left in Congress. Lodge said he had spoken to Rabb5 and told him to call Hagerty, re a Jewish-American group.6 L. asked if it was all right to say that we would back Israel up if she was attacked; the Sec said yes, if after withdrawal. Re the group the Sec said the Pres had talked to Sidney Weinberg who was to think of names and call back.

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L. said the Dept should be drafting a text of a resolution and a statement for him to make in N.Y. The Sec said he, Rountree, Phleger, and Wilcox were now talking about a resolution, that would not be easy to do; the statement would be easier. L. said he should have the text of a statement by Monday afternoon as he would have additions for it. The Sec said the Pres’ statement today would be the backbone for it. They discussed sponsorship. L. mentioned like in November, when we sponsored it alone. The Sec said he would hate to see us move in alone. L. said we did not have to but that is what we did in November. The Sec told L. to let Hammarskjold know about how things have shaped up.

  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, General Telephone Conversations. Transcribed by Proctor.↩
  2. On February 17, the Department of State made public the revised text of the U.S. Aide-Mémoire of February 11. At the same time in Thomasville, Georgia, President Eisenhower issued a statement explaining the U.S. position on the need for an Israeli withdrawal. Dulles, Eisenhower, and Hagerty discussed last-minute changes in the President’s statement over the telephone before and after Dulles’ conversation with Eban. Memoranda of these telephone conversations by Proctor are in the Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, White House Telephone Conversations. The text of the President’s statement is in Department of State Bulletin, March 11, 1957, pp. 391-392; and in United States Policy in the Middle East, September 1956–June 1957, pp. 292-293.↩
  3. The parenthetical insertion is Proctor’s.↩
  4. See Document 104.↩
  5. Maxwell M. Rabb, Secretary to Eisenhower’s Cabinet.↩
  6. The source text indicates that Proctor transcribed this word as “airport” with a question mark and that Dulles changed the word to group. The same correction was made in the final sentence of the paragraph.↩