Office of the Historian

437. Memorandum From Harold H. Saunders of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Special Assistant (Rostow)1

Washington, April 26, 1967.

Our Embassy office and AID Mission in Taiz were ransacked today by a Yemeni crowd. This followed the arrest of a Bureau of Public Roads official earlier in the day.2

We have lodged all the usual protests and have approached both the Egyptian and Yemeni governments to insist they guarantee the safety of our people there. Fortunately, no one has been hurt.

It will be a day or two before responsibility is clear enough for us to decide how we should play this—whether we should blame the Egyptians for it, pull out our road-building project, withdraw our Charge, or close out entirely. No one is inclined toward the more radical steps at the moment, but our decision may depend on what happens next.

Hal
  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Yemen, Cables &Memos, Vol. II, 7/64-12/68. Confidential.↩
  2. Documentation on this incident is in the National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Central Files 1967-69, POL 23-8 YEMEN and POLUS-YEMEN.↩