Office of the Historian

196. Memorandum of a Telephone Conversation Between the President and the Secretary of State, Washington, July 19, 1958, 10:04 a.m.1

Washington, July 19, 1958, 10:04 a.m.

TELEPHONE CALL TO THE PRESIDENT

The Sec and the Pres discussed changes in the statement the Pres will make to the men in Lebanon.2

The Sec said he will be seeing Lloyd this p.m.3 and thinks we have to make clear to the Br we are not looking on this as a long-term operation. Our rationale was that this was not going to help but would prevent our friends from losing faith in us. Now the problem is to get out. Murphy is talking about getting out. If the Br feel we are deserting them in Jordan we may have to send a small token force to Jordan so as to show we are not abandoning the Br. We have to give logistic support anyway. The POL is bad because the Saudis won’t let us fly over it. The Sec explained how the Br situation in Jordan is different. We are hooked for 30–40 million a year to pay the budget deficit of Jordan—the Sec would rather Nasser or the Soviets do that. The thing we want to preserve is that Persian Gulf position the Pres spoke of.

  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, White House Telephone Conversations. Transcribed in the Secretary’s office by Phyllis D. Bernau.↩
  2. On July 19, the President recorded a message which was broadcast to U.S. forces in Lebanon over Armed Forces Radio on July 19 and July 20. The message assured the troops of support for their mission of “helping the Lebanese people to remain free.” For text, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1958, pp. 559–560.↩
  3. See Document 202.↩