60. Memorandum of a Conversation Between the Secretary of State and the Israeli Ambassador (Eban), Department of State, Washington, January 19, 1959, 4:05 p.m.1
MEMORANDUM OF PRIVATE CONVERSATION WITH AMBASSADOR EBAN
The Ambassador referred to his Prime Minister’s letter to me of January 19.2 He indicated that Israel would like to do more of this type of work in the way of training people from Asia and Africa but lacked the money. He wondered whether we could help. They could use, they thought, with advantage to the Free World about $2 million a year more for 5 years. I asked whether any of the counterpart funds could be used perhaps for this purpose. He said he did not know but thought that that might be worth looking into.
He spoke again about the situation in Iraq and reaffirmed strongly the hope that we would not seem to throw our support back of Nasser in an effort to counter the Communists in Iraq. I said if one has to make a choice between the Communists and Nasser, I suppose Nasser is a lesser evil. He said he was not sure we would have to make the choice and thought there was still a chance that Iraq might opt for independence and neither the Communists nor the UAR.
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 686B.87/1–1959. Secret. Drafted by Dulles. Dulles and Eban also discussed Soviet Deputy Premier Mikoyan’s visit to the United States beginning January 4 and an Israeli request for financial assistance from the DLF. Memoranda of these parts of the conversation are ibid., Secretary’s Memoranda of Conversation: Lot 64 D 199.↩
- A copy of Ben Gurion’s 8-page letter [1½ lines of text not declassified] is attached to a covering letter from Eban to Dulles, January 19. (Ibid., Central Files, 784A.13/1–1959)↩