131. Memorandum of Telephone Conversations, Washington, February 22, 1957, 9:45 a.m. and 10:25 a.m.1
9:45 Secy. Dulles called Amb. Lodge, from President’s office.
Dulles said the President has a reply from Ben Gurion,2 that Amb. Eban is leaving tomorrow with new instructions, & expressing the hope that Eban can meet with Dulles before UN meets on this resolution.
Lodge will get to the Arabs this morning, tell them we would like to hear Eban’s views, & although we have no objection to meeting this afternoon, we would prefer recessing until Monday.
If the Arabs did have a chance to put in their very tough resolution, they would get no support for it. And we would then follow it up with our own, which Dulles & Lodge agreed was a very good one, with justice—“a statesmanlike thing.”
The Secretary of State called Arthur Flemming from the President’s desk.3 The Secretary asked if the Canal is not re-opened and if fighting again breaks out, how will Western Europe fare as far as oil is concerned. Flemming’s reply was that they could get along, particularly now that the weather is easing until the beginning of next winter (which would give time for new plans to be developed). He would hope that the ARAMCO pipeline would continue to function, but even if it did not, thinks that Europe would be all right. We are now supplying 80-90% of requirements. The industrial life of Western Europe has not suffered nearly as much as had been anticipated.
[Page 237]10:25 Secy. Humphrey (in Lexington) returned call.
The President explained that Secy. Dulles wanted to ask a question: How long could Western Europe get along if the Canal were reblocked & the pipeline closed? He said that Dulles talked to Arthur Flemming about it, & Flemming said that as far as actual delivery was concerned they are not in bad shape.
Secy. Dulles returned to President’s office, & got on phone. He repeated his conversation with Flemming. Humphrey agreed they would get along all right, but not for too long. Dulles inquired about the U.K. Humphrey said they could get along all right; that they have a very big cushion, & would have to use some of it. He said France would be the tough one, but would be tough any way it were done; this would just make it a little quicker & more difficult. If anything should happen to the pipeline, Italy would be in serious shape quickly, & would be on our backs in a minute.
Secy. Humphrey asked if he should return to Wash, tonight, or would 4 or 5 p.m. tomorrow be all right? Dulles said tomorrow night is all right. He said he is having talks with Eban, & that Lodge is stalling in N.Y., so there’s no need for Humphrey to hurry back.
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Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, Eisenhower Diaries. Prepared in the Office of the President. Dulles met with the President between 9:27 and 10:25 a.m. (Record of the President’s Daily Appointments; ibid.) No record of this conversation has been found in Department of State files or the Eisenhower Library.
Following the meeting, Hagerty issued a statement indicating that among other points the President and Secretary of State had discussed Ben Gurion’s speech to the Knesset of February 22 (see telegram 996 from Tel Aviv, infra), regretted that Israel had not yet found it possible to withdraw its forces from occupied territory, noted that the door was certainly not closed to further discussion of the situation, and welcomed such further discussion. For text of Hagerty’s statement, see Department of State Bulletin, March 11, 1957, p. 394.
↩ - Supra. ↩
- Dulles later drafted a memorandum of this telephone conversation with Hemming and of the one with Humphrey which followed. (Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, White House Telephone Conversations) According to Dulles’ memorandum, when he asked Humphrey about the consequence of the tapline closing, Humphrey said that it would create a difficult situation, but additional production and tankerage could still be obtained.↩