83. Letter From Senator Lyndon B. Johnson to the Secretary of State1
My Dear Mr. Secretary: I feel that I should tell you, most frankly, how disturbed I have been by recent stories in the press, which stories have appeared under the by-lines of most reputable correspondents, that serious consideration is being given in the General Assembly of the United Nations to imposing economic sanctions against the State of Israel. The purpose of these sanctions would, of course, be to force Israel to withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip and the mouth of the Aqaba Gulf. This imposition of sanctions would, or so it appears to me, be a most unwise move. It seems to me that this is so irrespective of whatever point of view one may take toward the various resolutions of the Assembly which have called for such withdrawals.
To put it simply, the United Nations cannot apply one rule for the strong and another for the weak; it cannot organize its economic weight against the little States when it has not previously made even a pretense of doing so against the large States. I have, Mr. Secretary, seen no suggestions in the United Nations of the application of economic sanctions against the USSR. Israel has in very large part complied with the directives of the United Nations. Russia has not even pretended to be polite.
I have, as you know, been urging during the discussion of the Middle East a determined effort by the United Nations and by the United States to go to the root causes of the troubles in the Middle East. One of these causes has been the hostile activity against Israel on the part of Egypt from the Gaza Strip and the threat of activity in the Gulf of Aqaba. I think you will agree that it is not utterly unreasonable for Israel to request guarantees by the United Nations that these attacks against her will not once more be prevalent, once she has withdrawn her troops from these two areas. Yet, I have seen no suggestion in the United Nations that economic sanctions should be applied against Egypt to force that State to agree to permanent cessation of hostile activities from those areas.
There is always a tendency to over-simplify a most complicated issue when one writes such a letter as this and it is my hope that you will not think that this protest is made without some awareness of the complexities. These, however, cannot be stated in the space of this letter nor should they be.
[Page 140]But the merits, the justice and the morality in this situation are clear against such imposition of economic sanctions. It is my hope that you will instruct the American Delegation to the United Nations to oppose with all its skill such a proposal if it is formally made.
Sincerely,
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 320/2–1157. a copy is in the Eisenhower Library, Dulles–Herter Series.↩