Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume XVII, Near East, 1961–1962

152. Memorandum From Secretary of State Rusk to President Kennedy⁰

Washington, December 23, 1961.

SUBJECT

• Proposed Meeting Between you and King Saud

King Saud has recovered from his illness and is recuperating from two eye operations performed earlier this month with the hope of improving his eyesight considerably. While the doctors recommend that the King remain convalescent in the United States another two months after his release from the hospital on or about December 30, the King may wish to return to Saudi Arabia shortly thereafter.

The King has expressed appreciation for your message sent to him at Dhahran in early November when his illness became known and for the flowers you sent to his hospital room. However, he has become somewhat concerned that the United States Government has not paid more attention to him. Word has reached him through others that the speeches of the chief Saudi delegate to the United Nations, Ahmad Shuqairi, and the negative response the King made to your letter to him of June 25¹ may have had something to do with this.

According to confidants of the King, he served notice to Shuqairi four or five months ago that he would tolerate no more anti-American speeches on his part at the United Nations. The King is reported to have said that if it is true that Shuqairi has not heeded his instruction, he will dismiss him. The King has reportedly requested translations be made of Shuqairi’s recent speeches in order to determine for himself.

With regard to the King’s response to your letter of June 25, the King is said to have informed confidants last week that he did not draft the letter and did not read it carefully upon affixing his signature. The King appeared to be genuinely disturbed to learn that the letter had displeased you. We should add that Saudi Arabia supported us in the “important question” vote on Chinese representation in the United Nations.

We believe that the time is propitious for you to invite the King to Washington. Therefore, we propose:

(1) That you authorize me to designate an official of the Department personally to extend on your behalf an invitation to the King to visit Washington on a day in early January convenient to you.

(2) That you approve the enclosed suggested letter to King Saud² extending such an invitation and expressing pleasure at the King’s recovery, to be delivered by the Department emissary.

(3) That your personal plane transport the King and selected members of his party to Washington and back to Boston the same day.

(4) That in addition to a private meeting with the King in the forenoon for discussion of subjects of mutual interest, you give a luncheon for the King and his party at the White House.³

Dean Rusk⁴

0. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 786A.11/12–2361. Secret. Drafted by Seelye (NEA/NE) on December 20. Talbot proposed that this memorandum be sent to President Kennedy in a December 21 memorandum to Secretary Rusk. Talbot’s memorandum also suggested that Secretary Rusk designate a Department officer to extend the President’s invitation personally to the King, still in the hospital in Boston. As soon as the King was able to leave the hospital, the President should send a plane to bring him to Washington for an interview and a White House luncheon, after which the plane would return the King to Boston. (Ibid., 786A.11/12–2161)
1. Reference is to King Saud’s reply of June 25 to President Kennedy’s May 11 letter. See footnotes 2 and 3, Document 81.
2. Attached but not printed. A copy of the final signed letter, dated December 23, is in Department of State, Central Files, 786A.11/12–2361. In the letter, President Kennedy expressed gratification for the King’s successful recovery from his recent illness and for the successful operation on his eyes. The President expressed regret that he had been unable to entertain the King at his home in Hyannis Port and that the pressure of affairs had prevented him from visiting the King in the hospital. He then extended the invitation for the King to visit Washington in order to meet with him and attend a White House luncheon on a mutually convenient date, and offered to send his personal airplane to transport the King and his party.

3. A marginal handwritten notation on this memorandum and on the Department of State copy of President Kennedy’s letter indicates that Talbot handcarried a copy of the letter to Boston for delivery to the King and that the signed original of the letter was handcarried to the King the next week.

   In a December 31 memorandum to McGeorge Bundy, Battle reported that after Talbot delivered the letter to King Saud, Saudi Ambassador Khayyal emphasized repeatedly the King’s hope, which he had expressed privately, that President Kennedy would visit him in the hospital while he was convalescing in Boston. The Ambassador explained that it was customary in the Arab world that such a call be paid. In response, U.S. officials made clear that pressure of work and the illness of the President’s father prevented him from paying such a call and that, in any case, such a visit did not conform with usual U.S. protocol practices. (Ibid., 786A.11/12–3161)

4. Printed from a copy that indicates Ball signed the original for Rusk.