Memorandum for the Acting Secretary of State
: Unless you have some specific objection, please dispatch the following message to Foster. If you want to make any changes, I suggest that you call Mrs. Whitman, who can take them up with me when I return to my office later this afternoon.1
"
Dear Foster:
"Through your communications to me and to Herb, I have been keeping in fairly close touch with your work. In fact, whenever you are absent on one of these trips, you are never long out of my mind. I fully appreciate the burden you carry, and I am grateful both for the wisdom and cheerfulness with which you perform these onerous tasks.
"I was particularly intrigued by your "thinking-aloud" telegram on the Mid East situation.2 For some time now I have been talking to some of my friends in a general and rather hazy sort of fashion along similar lines. I tend to believe that if we could get Libya and Saudi Arabia firmly in our camp, and do it at the same time that we give Israel the necessary assurances, we would have the possibility of trouble in that region very greatly minimized, if not practically eliminated.3
"On the domestic side, Benson is doing well up to this moment in his farm program in the Senate.4 We are not completely out of the woods, but so far all the crucial votes have been favorable to our side.
"My warm greetings to Janet and, of course, all the best to yourself. As ever
