45. Memorandum of a Conversation Between the Secretary of State and the British Ambassador (Caccia), Washington, May 21, 19581
At the British Embassy I spoke to the British Ambassador, saying I wanted to do so in the most private and confidential way. I thought I should warn him that some of our people, not just in Washington but elsewhere, had the impression that we were being crowded by our British colleagues into intervention in Lebanon. I emphasized that we regarded this as merely the lesser of two evils, each of which was very great, and that our ardent hope was to avoid any military intervention. Caccia rather indignantly denied that that was their purpose. He said that all they wanted to do was to plan against the contingency, and that our people seemed indisposed even to sit down with them for planning purposes.
I urged that the British people involved with us in this operation should be quite clear as to the basic policy involved.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 783A.00/5–2158. Top Secret. Drafted by Dulles. The source text indicates that the conversation took place at dinner.↩