PPS Files, Lot 64 D 563, Near and Middle East, 1948
Memorandum by the Director of the Policy Planning Staff (Kennan) to the Secretary of State 1
The Policy Planning Staff, while fully cognizant of the limitations on formulation of policy in the Department on the Palestine matter, wishes to record once more its deep apprehensions over the trend of U.S. policy.
The Staff paper No. 19 of January 19, 19482 and the supplement of January 29 made clear the view of the Staff that this Government should not take any action which would:
- (a)
- lead us to the assumption of major responsibility for the maintenance and security of a Jewish state in Palestine; or
- (b)
- bring us into a conflict with the British over the Palestine issue.
The second of these documents specifically warned, in section 4, against our acceptance of the thesis that armed interference in Palestine by the Arab states would constitute aggression, which this Government [Page 1021] would be bound, as a member of the United Nations, to join in opposing.
The course of action we are now embarking on in the UN leads us in the direction of all of these situations. It thereby threatens not only to place in jeopardy some of our most vital national interests in the Middle East and the Mediterranean but also to disrupt the unity of the western world and to undermine our entire policy toward the Soviet Union. This is not to mention the possibility that it may initiate a process of disintegration in the United Nations itself.
The fact that we have not yet been able to obtain the support of a Security Council majority for the courses we are advocating relieves us of none of our responsibility.
The Staff considers, therefore, that the problem of the wisdom of this course is a grave and crucial question of national security which should be decided only on the advice of the National Security Council and after the most careful and thorough deliberation.