309. Memorandum From Robert W. Komer of the National Security Council Staff to President Kennedy0
Yemen Round-up. It finally looks as though, between U Thant’s testy prods (we finally got him moving) and our own side noises, we’ve gotten Nasser to start public disengagement. He’s undoubtedly been stalling till he felt reasonably confident he had civil war under control. But he’s again assured UN and us that UAR is pulling several thousand troops out (not rotating); he’ll give a big “victory” speech Sunday which we hope will commit him publicly again.
But now Saudis may be acting up. UNYOM says it discovered two Saudi truck convoys heading into Yemen loaded with mortar shells. We will hit Saudis hard on this, armed with above indications Nasser is coming through. Faysal has been getting edgy, but we think he’ll back down. However, we’ll no doubt have to keep our eight F-100s there a while longer—a pullout now would destroy our credibility with the Saudis.
The two-month delay in getting UN to move in now looks more worthwhile, in view of the effective job it seems to be doing. Our next project is to get the UAR and Saudis together to start talking about a political solution in Yemen. Both sides seem tentatively willing, which is a good sign.
- Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Countries Series, Yemen, 8/63. Secret. A handwritten note on the source text reads: “(Taken from Pres. week-end reading dtd 8/9/63).”↩