Office of the Historian

168. Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation Between the Secretary of State in Washington and the Representative at the United Nations (Lodge) in New York, February 28, 1957, 4:55 p.m.1

Washington, February 28, 1957, 4:55 p.m.

TELEPHONE CALL TO AMB LODGE

The Amb returned the call and the Sec reviewed the statement to be made by Israel and ours. L said off-hand it sounded pretty good. There were wild rumors there we had adopted the French view re Gaza etc. The Sec said no doubt Israel hopes and will express the hope that the UN will carry out the adm functions in Gaza. The Sec pointed out you can’t keep them out and undoubtedly anything done would be done under the authority of Egypt and they would be going back and forth in the area; the actual adm of the refugees would be entrusted to the UN. L said the statement was made this p.m.2 re making it tomorrow p.m. and the Sec said we are working on a draft of our statement and will get it to L as soon as possible. L will have to make a statement following the one by Israel and there will be a lot of statements and no doubt the Arabs are going to contradict the Israeli statements. We don’t expect to prevent their giving their views—this is getting them out. L asked if the Sec thinks they would say if you talk this way we won’t withdraw. The Sec does not think so but if they go back on prior assurances on which H has based his statements and repudiated all of that then there would be trouble. They agreed it could be ticklish tomorrow. L said Fawzi made a bitter speech this p.m. re Mollet after what M said here yesterday. And having M with the Sec made them suspicious. L said we are in a perfectly clean position and the Sec agreed. The Sec said if H should repudiate what he has said or if the Egyptians should say we are not going to let the [Page 318] UNEF go into these areas they could kick it over and that would be an act of very bad faith on their part and world opinion would be against them. L thinks he should talk with H and wondered re the Arabs. L will be around and if he gets bumped into by the Arabs . . . .3 The Sec said the important thing is to dispel the thought we have made a secret deal. There is nothing that is not in the aide-mémoire or the Pres’s speech. If we could get this settled and then Suez then we are in a position to help these countries. The Sec thinks the Arabs have been hoping it would bring a break between us and Israel and they will be disappointed—L said they can’t admit it in public. L said it is a wonderful job and he will go to work to pave the way.

  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, General Telephone Conversations. Transcribed by Bernau.↩
  2. During the 664th meeting of the General Assembly, which began at 3 p.m. that day, Israeli Representative Kidron informed the Assembly that “the Israel delegation will be in a position to make a statement on Israel’s plans for the withdrawal of its forces at a meeting of the General Assembly tomorrow afternoon.” (U.N. doc, A/PV. 664)↩
  3. Ellipsis in the source text.↩