186. Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation Between the President and Secretary of State, Washington, March 3, 1957, 7:47 p.m.1
TELEPHONE CALL TO THE PRESIDENT
The Sec reported on his talk with Eban. The Sec said they were writing a letter quoting the words of the Meir speech. The Sec said they are all right, they had been agreed on. The Sec said they may claim the letter assumes a new significance in the light of the talks between him and Eban. The Sec said they would say they had a right to defend their rights. Any nation has a right to defend their rights, the only question is what are the rights. The Sec said he had told them that we have to be in a position of saying that we have no secret understandings with them. He said he would do nothing with Eban which could not see the light of day. It was terribly important that there be no suspicions that we had any secret agreements with them. The Sec said he told them they were losing valuable time. He said they had had the opportunity to get out on the basis of what they said and their assumptions, which had gone unchallenged. Now he was afraid that the Arabs would challenge at the UN. The Sec said he suspected that Ben Gurion had a lot of troubles.
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, White House Telephone Conversations. Transcribed by Proctor. The Secretary was at his home in Washington. The source text indicated that Proctor could only hear Dulles’ side of the conversation.↩