248. Editorial Note
On August 1, President Eisenhower replied to Chairman Khrushchev’s July 28 letter. Again, he took exception to the premises underlying Khrushchev’s characterization of the intervention of U.S. and British forces into Lebanon and Jordan as aggression. The intervention occurred, he argued, as a result of indirect aggression against small countries in the Middle East which had to turn to the United States and the United Kingdom for support to preserve their independence. To discuss this problem, Eisenhower indicated that he was prepared to participate in a heads of government meeting of the members of the Security Council. He proposed August 12 as the date for the meeting and agreed that it could take place outside of the United States, but added that he could not agree to a meeting in Moscow in light of the mass demonstrations and violence which had occurred at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow on July 18. The text of this letter was transmitted to Moscow in telegram 214, July 31, for delivery on August 1. (Department of State, Central Files, 396.1/7–3158) The text was released in Washington on August 1 and is printed in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1958, pages 577–579, and American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1958, pages 1018–1019.