340. Editorial Note
In briefing the National Security Council on October 2 on significant world developments affecting U.S. security, Allen Dulles offered the following assessment of developments in Lebanon and Jordan which prompted discussion among Council members:
“With respect to the situation in Lebanon, Mr. Dulles stated that Chehab, the new President of Lebanon, was proposing to call a special session of the Lebanese Parliament in order to seek a vote of confidence for the new cabinet headed by Prime Minister Karami. Indeed, Chehab was threatening to dissolve the Lebanese Parliament if the vote of confidence was not forthcoming. While the Lebanese Parliament was strong in its support of former President Chamoun, Mr. Dulles predicted that the vote of confidence in the Karami government would be forthcoming. Incidentally, he added, that all the seven cabinet [Page 591] ministers nominated by Karami had been opposed to former President Chamoun’s pro-Western policy. Accordingly, the situation was very tense from the point of view of the Christian element in Lebanon.
“Secretary Dulles said that it was not his own view or that of the State Department that the new Karami regime was in any sense anti-Western. Former President Chamoun had adopted an extreme pro-Western policy, so extreme, in fact, that he, Secretary Dulles, had suggested at one time modifications in this policy. Secretary Dulles therefore believed that the creation of the new Karami regime constituted a reaction to the extreme pro-Western policy of former President Chamoun. While the new government was not really anti-American, Karami and his colleagues would want to blunt the sharp differences which had hitherto existed between the government of Lebanon and Nasser as well as other Arab Nationalist leaders.
“Mr. Allen Dulles replied that he could not agree wholly with the view expressed by Secretary Dulles. He thought that the new Lebanese government would pursue a foreign policy similar to that being pursued by the new government in Iraq. Secretary Dulles expressed his disagreement and Mr. Allen Dulles replied that he and the Secretary would have to agree to differ on this point. Mr. Allen Dulles said that, in general, the Moslem leaders in Lebanon were further away from the West than was President Chehab himself.
“In Jordan, said Mr. Allen Dulles, rumours were spreading that King Hussein was planning to bring opposition leaders into the Jordanian cabinet. Hussein’s objective here would be to protect himself when the British forces left Jordan about October 20. Meanwhile, there had been no let-up in the vicious propaganda war against Hussein waged by Cairo and Damascus.
“Secretary Dulles expressed the opinion that the continued blockade of Jordan by her Arab neighbors was at least as disturbing as the continued propaganda campaign. Hammarskjold’s whole plan for Jordan as well as the plans for the departure of British forces from the country actually depended on the lifting of this blockade. If it were not lifted, Jordan would be in a helpless condition.” (Memorandum of discussion at the 381st Meeting of the National Security Council, prepared by Gleason on October 3; Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, NSC Records)