Office of the Historian

80. Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation Between the Secretary of State and Henry R. Luce, Washington, February 11, 1957, 2:09 p.m.1

Washington, February 11, 1957, 2:09 p.m.

TELEPHONE CALL FROM MR. LUCE

Re Israel—he is worried and hopes they would behave properly but nevertheless it is a mistake for the US to vote sanctions against them. What stimulated the call is that Mrs L2 told him that Truman tomorrow night is making a speech in Miami and thinks to a Jewish group. He thinks he will come out against it. If we are not going to have to vote them he thinks it would be desirable for some sort of statement to be made by the Administration before he makes his. The Sec does not think it is possible at all. The Sec said people close to the Arab situation including Lodge and Near Eastern people here all feel if Israel sticks in its present position and if we do not go along with sanctions, that is the end of any hope for us in the ME. They may be wrong—the Sec does not know. He is trying hard to work out something and has given to Eban assurances on behalf of the US which he thinks ought to be regarded as adequate—better than from anybody else. He does not know what he is going to do. Ben Gurion is in an emotional state—put on demonstrations etc. . . . The Sec thinks Eban was impressed and is taking the memo to study but to announce that under no circumstances would we go along with sanctions would not be good. L said any statement less than that may be meaningless. L meant to say the US is not necessarily committed to them. The Sec said he probably will have a backgrounder at 5:303 and that will give him a chance to explain our position though not to the public as well as a public statement would. No press conf tomorrow. We are doing all we can to avoid sanctions. No desire for them. The most serious sanction is condemnation of world opinion and sharp divergence in Israeli and US policies—this he told Eban. The Sec said L knows he is well aware how almost impossible it is in this country to carry out [Page 137] foreign policy not approved by the Jews. Marshall and Forrestal4 learned that. I am going to try to have one—that does not mean I am anti-Jewish, but I believe in what G Washington said in his Farewell Address that an emotional attachment to another country should not interfere.

  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, General Telephone Conversations. Transcribed by Bernau. Henry R. Luce was Director of Time, Inc.↩
  2. Reference is presumably to Clare Boothe Luce, Ambassador to Italy.↩
  3. At 5:45 p.m. that evening, Dulles held a backgrounder for selected journalists at the home of Philip Graham, publisher of the Washington Post. (Dulles’ Appointment Book; Princeton University Library, Dulles Papers)↩
  4. Reference is to former Secretary of State George C. Marshall and former Secretary of Defense James Forrestal.↩