Office of the Historian

279. Memorandum From the Counselor of the Department of State (Reinhardt) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern, South Asian, and African Affairs (Rountree)1

Washington, April 10, 1957.

SUBJECT

  • Suez Canal

The Secretary said the draft paper “Future Action with Respect to the Suez Canal” was all right as an index.2 It lacked, however, reference to U.S.I.S. which should be doing its utmost to explain our position throughout the Arab world. He asked what was U.S.I.S. in fact doing in this regard and what were its capabilities?

What was now required, the Secretary added, was a revised Omega paper. This might not be the exact moment for such a paper, but it might well become timely in a matter of days.

The Secretary felt there was a tendency to worry too much about Egypt. Rather than this we should worry more about the other Arab States. An earnest effort should be made to make people like Saud, Chamoun and Nuri Pasha feel they were cut in on our thinking and [Page 532] policy and to wean them away from Nasser. They should be brought into the picture and convinced that we are not working for British and French interests, but for theirs and that a reasonable settlement was in their interest.

In this connection, it was important to counteract Nasser’s exaggerations of our dependence on the Canal. (The fact was that the confidence in the Canal as a dependable artery of trade which had been lost, could probably never be regained and whatever the nature of a settlement the development of alternatives both as to the Canal and sources of oil would go on and prove the contrary.)

In conclusion the Secretary said it was important for U.S.I.S. to do its utmost to advance these ideas.

Frederick Reinhardt3
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 974.7301/4–1057. Top Secret; Eyes Only. The source text is a copy sent to Acting Secretary Herter, who initialed the document.↩
  2. On April 11, Reinhardt circulated a revised copy of the draft paper in question, “Index to Future Action With Respect to the Suez Canal”, to various bureaus in the Department of State for their guidance under cover of a note which explained that Secretary Dulles had reviewed the document. The paper, which is not printed, listed various aspects of the Suez Canal problem being considered within the Department of State and assigned primary responsibility for each listing to a separate bureau. (Ibid., 974.7301/4–1157) No copy of the original paper has been found in Department of State files.↩
  3. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩