<--PREV Doc #45  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #47 Document #46; February 23, 1957 To Harold Macmillan Series: EM, AWF, International Series: Macmillan ; Category: Cable. Secret The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XVIII - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace Part I: A New Beginning, Old Problems; January 1957 to May 1957 Chapter 1: The Mideast and the Eisenhower Doctrine   Dear Harold:1 Thank you for your note. As I read it, I am impressed by a feeling that we are not far apart in our thinking. Certainly Foster and I have struggled to be fair and have done our utmost to assure the Israeli of the things we would do and the support we would give as soon as they agreed to the major proposition of withdrawal.2 Of course any prediction as to the details of future United Nations action is largely guess work. I agree that as of this moment, a simple condemnation of Israel and vote of sanctions would be wrong. I think that a single Resolution could properly combine both withdrawal orders and important assurances to Israel along the lines of my address.3 But I suspect that things have gone far enough that no Resolution can command the required votes unless it also includes some intimation of consequences to Israel if she refuses to comply. We are anxious, in this as in all other important matters, that you and ourselves should stand together. I devoutly hope that we can work this one out.4 With warm regard, As ever 1 Harold Macmillan had been Foreign Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer before being named Prime Minister of Great Britain on January 10, 1957; for background see Galambos and van Ee, The Middle Way, nos. 2124 and 2164. The State Department drafted this cable. 2 For background see no. 40. Macmillan had told Eisenhower that British public opinion strongly favored a fair settlement. "Of course we want the Israeli forces to be withdrawn so that all the efforts of the world can be directed to forcing Nasser to a reasonable settlement of the Canal in the short and in the long term. On the other hand, public opinion here will not allow us to do what they think is inequitable." Macmillan said that he understood Israel's hesitancy, "since Egypt has been in default over the resolutions dealing with Israeli shipping in the Canal for many years without any real action being taken against her" (Macmillan to Eisenhower, Feb. 22, 1957, AWF/I: Macmillan). 3 In Eisenhower's February 20 address to the nation he had supported Israel's claim that the Gulf of Aqaba was an international waterway. He also said that the United States would work to assure that the Gaza Strip "could no longer be used as a source of armed infiltration and reprisals" (Public Papers of the Presidents: Eisenhower, 1957, pp. 147 - 56). 4 For developments see no. 56. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Cable. Secret To Harold Macmillan, 23 February 1957. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 46. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/second-term/documents/46.cfm <--PREV Doc #45  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  Second Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #47

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