Office of the Historian

501.BB Palestine/7–2348

Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, by the Director of the Office of United Nations Affairs (Rusk)

[Washington,] July 23, 1948.

Mr. Ohly1 called and said that the War Council (Secretary of Defense and Secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force) had been briefed by Mr. Bohlen on the Palestine situation and had come to the following conclusion, subject to the views of the Joint Chiefs of Staff:

1.
That the maintenance of the truce in Palestine was of vital interest to the security of the United States;
2.
That the United States should do everything we properly can to help Count Bernadotte implement the truce;
3.
That instructions should be issued to Admiral Sherman to see Count Bernadotte immediately to work out an observation plan and a program of United States assistance;
4.
That consideration should be given as to whether the whole job of assistance should be turned over to a single service or should be continued on an inter-service basis.

  1. John H. Ohly, Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense.↩