Office of the Historian

123. Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation Between the Secretary of State in Washington and Arthur H. Dean in New Haven, Connecticut, February 20, 1957, 6:20 p.m.1

Washington, February 20, 1957, 6:20 p.m.

TELEPHONE MESSAGE FROM MR. DEAN IN NEW HAVEN

D said Mrs. Meir called about 10 minutes ago and read over the telephone the new message to BG which the Israeli Emb was requested to telephone this p.m. to Israel.2 She wanted the Sec to have the following information: They got the request to telephone this at 3 our time. They are 7 hours earlier there so that it was already 10 [Page 228] tonight. Eban had not yet arrived. The Cabinet has been called at 11 their time tomorrow a.m. and their Parliament has been called for 4 their time tomorrow p.m. Their Parliament had previously met and gave instructions to BG on the 27th of Jan and under their Constitution the PM can’t change instructions that he has previously received. They understand that the GA is convening tomorrow a.m. to act upon Malik’s resolutions asking sanctions against Israel and there is no possibility of their being able to get any reply until after BG has addressed the Parliament tomorrow p.m. She then went into a long song and dance that the debate might last for some time and even if the GA were adjourned until Friday as rumored, she didn’t think there would be time for any answer. D said before an executive goes before Parliament he has to think out what he is going to say and be a leader and can’t just say what are my instructions and therefore some time tomorrow morning he must know what he is going to say. D said if he could telephone to her he was going to say yes, that then there would come into play the slight change in wording the Sec was willing to make if he first had the unconditional assurance their answer was going to be yes and if they are going to try to play for time over the weekend they might be in real trouble and it seemed to D that constitution or no constitution or previous parliament instructions or not, he ought to be able to tell in principle whether or not he was going to recommend acceptance sometime tomorrow after the Cabinet meeting and D urged her to get some kind of answer at that time. She said she would but made no commitment.

  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, General Telephone Conversations. Transcribed by Bernau.↩
  2. Document 121.↩