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Notes
1 ‘Joint Statement by the Governments of the United Kingdom, France and the United States, 25th May, 1950’, National Archives, Kew, London, UK (henceforth: UK- NA), FO/371/81909, Department of State Bulletin, 5 June 1950, p. 886.
2 Isaac Alteras, Eisenhower and Israel: US-Israeli Relations, 1953–1960 (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1993), pp. 77, 116, 219; Michael Cohen, ‘Prologue to Suez: Anglo-American Planning for Military Intervention in a Middle East War, 1955–1956’, Journal of Strategic Studies, 26(2) (June 2003), p. 163; T.G. Fraser, The USA and the Middle East Since World War 2 (London: Macmillan, 1989), p. 59; Peter L. Hahn, The United States, Great Britain and Egypt, 1945–1956: Strategy and Diplomacy in the Early Cold War (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1991), p. 94. See also Hahn pp. 94–101, 229–230; Matthew F. Holland, America and Egypt (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1996), p. 7; Wm. Roger Louis, The British Empire in the Middle East, 1945–1951 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984), pp. 583–590; Keith Kyle, Suez (London: I.B. Tauris, 1991), p. 36; W. Scott Lucas, Divided We Stand (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1991), pp. 9–10; Shlomo Slonim, ‘Origins of the 1950 Tripartite Declaration on the Middle East’, Middle Eastern Studies 23 (April 1987).
3 Glen Balfour—Paul, The End of Empire in the Middle East (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), p. 15; Lord Beloff, ‘The End of the British Empire and the Assumption of World-wide Commitments by the United States’, in Wm. Roger Louis and Hedley Bull (eds) The ‘Special Relationship’- Anglo- American Relations Since 1945 (Oxford: Clanderon Press, 1986), pp. 249–260 and especially 253–254; Hahn, The United States, Great Britain and Egypt, pp. 19–23; Holland, America and Egypt, pp. xxiv–xxvi; Lucas, Divided We Stand, pp. 10ff.
4 ‘Arms for Arab States’, Foreign Office [to various Commonwealth Commissioners], 3 June 1949, UK- NA, PREM/8/1049; The Charge in the United Kingdom to the Secretary of State, February 18, 1950, FRUS 1950, V:750–751. J.W.P.S.-A.W.P. m(50) 5th meeting, 18 May 1950, UK- NA, DEFE/7/203.
5 David Tal, The Development of Israel's Current Security Conception, 1949–1956 (Beer Sheva: Beer Sheva University Press, 1998), pp. 19–20.
6 Abba Eban meeting with the Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, Memorandum of Conversation, 31 January 1950, Papers of Dean Acheson, Truman Library, Independence, Missouri (henceforth: TL) and the meeting of Acheson with Congress members, Memorandum of Conversation, March 28, 1950, ibid. See also D. Acheson to J.K. Javits, January 12, 1950, TL, Papers of David Niles; Memorandum of Conversation between the Charge D'affaires in the Israeli embassy in London, with the Secretary of State, 11 April 1950, UK- NA, FO/371/82528.
7 ‘The Implications of British Middle East Arms Policy’, 28 February 1950, UK- NA, FO/371/82528.
8 K. Helm Tel Aviv, to Foreign Office, 3 May 1950, UK- NA, FO/371/82528; The Foreign Office to Tel Aviv, 8 May 1950, ibid; David Tal, ‘Weapons Without Influence: British Arms Supply Policy and the Egyptian-Czech Arms Deal (1945–1955)’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (forthcoming).
9 United States Policy Toward Arms Shipment to the Near East, 17 May 1950, TL, Papers of David Niles.
10 NSC 65, 28 March 1950, NA, RG 273; D. Acheson to J.K. Javits, 12 January 1950, TL, Papers of David Niles; Memorandum of Conversation, 28 March 1950, ibid.
11 United States Policy Toward Arms Shipments to the Near East, 28 March 1950, FRUS 1950, V:133; Israel bought arms and airplanes from Czechoslovakia between April 1948 and early 1950, Uri Bialer, Between East and West (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 173–181.
12 Memorandum for the President, 7 April 1950, TL, Papers of H.S. Truman Secretary's Files; Report prepared in the Department of State, 28 April 1950, ibid.
13 Foreign Office minute, 12 December 1949. UK- NA, FO/371/81907; G.C. McGhee to M. Wright, 24 February 1950, ibid.
14 Furlonge Minute, 7 February 1950, UK- NA, FO/371/81914; Background Memorandum on Visit to the USA of Vincent Auriol, President of the French Republic, March 1951, TL, Papers of H.S. Truman Secretary Files.
15 Foreign Office Minute: ‘Stability in the Middle East’, 27 March 1950, UK- NA, FO/371/81907. The British document does not indicate the object of those fears. It should be remembered that Israel and Jordan were then negotiating a peace settlement.
16 On the Saudis' fear of the Hashemites, both in Jordan and Iraq see Nadav Safran, Saudi Arabia, The Ceaseless Quest for Security (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 1985), pp. 62–67.
17 Foreign Office Minute: ‘Stability in the Middle East’, March 27, 1950, UK- NA, FO/371/81907.
18 From Paris to Foreign Office, 1 May 1950, UK- NA, FO/371/81907.
19 The London Conference, May 1950, no. 7, 1 May 1950, UK- NA, FO/371/81908; Foreign Office to Ankara, 23 May 1950, UK- NA, FO/371/81909.
20 ‘Proposed Statement on Middle East’, 17 May 1950, UK- NA, FO/371/81910; from Foreign Office to Damascus, 20 May 1950, UK- NA, FO/371/81909.
21 Israel sent letter of consent on February 13 to Washington; Egypt- on May 13, Jordan and Iraq on May 19, Saudi Arabia on late May, and so did Syria and Lebanon. Proposed Anglo-American-French Statement on the Middle East, 22 May 1950, UK- NA, FO/371/81910.
22 David Tal, ‘The American-Israeli Security Treaty: Sequel or Means to the Relief of Israeli-Arab Tensions, 1954–1955’, Middle Eastern Studies, 31(4) (October 1995), p. 829.
23 This was how the Egyptian ambassador to Washington presented his government's position regarding the West's involvement in the defense of the Middle East: Memorandum of a Conversation, 17 October 1950, TL, Papers of Dean Acheson. For Egyptian, Iraqi and Jordanian negotiations with Great Britain, see Louis, British Empire, pp. 15, 106–107, 252–257.
24 R. Stevenson, Alexandria to Foreign Office, 8 October 1951, UK- NA, PREM/8/1388; Hahn, The United States, Great Britain and Egypt, pp. 93–130.
25 Israel's struggle against the infiltrators is dealt with in Tal, Current Security. On Israel's retaliation attacks and the Tripartite Declaration, see Conversations in London between Assistant Secretary McGhee and the British Foreign Office, September 1950, TL, Papers of McGhee; The Acting Secretary of State to the Embassy in Tel Aviv, 28 April 1954, NA, RG 84, 684A.85/4–2854; NSC 207th meeting, 26 June 1954, ibid, RG 273; ‘United States Objectives and Policies with Respect to the Near East’, 23 July 1954, ibid, lot file 63 D 351.
26 Foreign Office to Washington, 5 April 1051, UK- NA, DEFE 7/225; Foreign Office to Washington, 21 April 1951, ibid.
27 US/UK Polito-Military Talks at the Pentagon, 2 May 1951, UK- NA, DEFE 7/225.
28 Western and United Nations Department to UK High Commissioners in the Commonwealth states, 8 September 1951, UK- NA, DEFE 7/225.
29 COS (49) 314, 23 September 1949, UK- NA, DEFE 5/16.
30 Foreign Office to Washington, 2 May 1951, UK- NA, DEFE/5/227; US/UK Polito-Military Talks at the Pentagon, 2 May 1951, ibid; FO to Washington 27 November 1951, UK- NA, DEFE 7/225.
31 G.W. Furlonge FO, to the Secretary, Chiefs of Staff Committee, 22 November 1951, UK- NA, DEFE 7/225.
32 O. Harvey, Paris to Foreign Office, 11 April 1951, UK- NA, DEFE/5/225; frrom Washington to Foreign Office, 20 September 1951, UK- NA, DEFE/7/225; from Washington to Foreign Office, 26 September 1951, ibid.
33 BJSM Washington to Ministry of Defence, 13 August 1952, UK- NA, DEFE/7/226; Foreign Office to Paris, 10 September 1952, UK- NA, DEFE/7/225.
34 B.J.S.M., Washington to MoD, 15 March 1953, London, UK- NA, DEFE 7/226.
35 From BJSM, Washington to Ministry of Defence, 13 August 1952, UK- NA, DEFE/7/226; from the Secretary, BJSM, Washington to the secretary, COS committee, 8 September 1954, UK- NA, DEFE/7/228.
36 For examples of the NEACC's work see: Ministry of Defence Memorandum, 22 August 1952, UK- NA, DEFE/7/226; Washington to Foreign Office, 16 September 1952, UK- NA, DEFE/7/225; NEACC-US, D-11, 23 June 1953, UK- NA, DEFE/11/60; BJSM to Ministry of Defence, 11 June 1954, UK- NA, DEFE/7/228.
37 J.W.P.C. (A.W.P.)/P (52) 135, 26 August 1952, UK- NA, DEFE 7/225.
38 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Arms Trade with the Third World (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1975), pp. 43–47, 52–53.
39 Foreign Office to Ministry of Defence, 13 May 1954, UK- NA, DEFE/7/227; H.G. Greswell, Ministry of Defence, to S.P. Fallah, Foreign Office, 17 May 1954, ibid.
40 The whole process is described in FRUS 1952–1954, IX, 377 ff; The British Embassy in Baghdad to the Foreign Office, 25 March 1953, UK- NA, FO/371/104236; The British Middle East Office (Fayid) to the Foreign Office, London, 27 March 1953; Foreign Office Memo: ‘Iraq and the Middle East Defence’, 7 April 1953. Ibid, FO/371/104236.
41 NEACC-US, D-27, 14 September 1954, UK- NA, DEFE/7/228.
42 Henry Byroade, Cairo Embassy, to Secretary of State, 5 April 1955, NA, RG 84, CE-GR, box 263; Henry Byroade, Cairo Embassy, to Secretary of State, 23 June 1955, NA, RG 84, 674.00/6-2355; On Nasser's struggle against Egypt's lose of influence and to keep Arab states in his camp; see Uriel Dann, King Hussein and the Challenge of Arab Radicalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), pp. 26–30; Eli Pode, The Quest for Hegemony in the Arab World: the Struggle Over the Baghdad Pact (Leiden: L.J. Brill, 1995), pp. 107–118, 126–132, 149–153, 172–195; and also: Mohammed H. Heikal, Suez: Cutting the Lion's Tail (London: Deutsch, 1986), Chap. 5.
43 Consultation at the Prime Minister's residence, 27 March 1953, Israel State Archives, Jerusalem, Israel (ISA), FO/2449/1; R. Shiloah Memorandum, 1 August 1954, ibid, FO/4373/17; A meeting on the Anglo-Egyptian agreement, 3 August 1954, ibid, FO/2419/2.
44 The Secretary of State to the Embassy in Tel Aviv, 4 August 1954, NA, RG 84, 641.74/8–454; Jernegen, NEA, to the Secretary of State, 30 August 1954, ibid, RG 84, 611.84A/8-3054.
45 The Secretary of State to the Embassy in Tel Aviv, 4 August 1954, NA, RG 84, 641.74/8-454; Jernegen, NEA, to the Secretary of State, 30 August 1954, ibid, RG 84, 611.84A/8-3054.
46 C.O.S (51) 537: ‘Allied MEC Arrangements - Egyptian Position’, 18 September 1951, UK- NA, PREM/8/1359; R. Stevenson, Alexandria, to the Foreign Office, 8 October 1951, ibid, PREM/8/1388; Gordon, Nasser's Blessed Movement, p. 26.
47 AWP, 13th meeting, 20 July 1954, UK- NA, DEFE/7/228; JWPC (AWP)/M (54) 14 August 1954, ibid; JWPC (AWP) /M (54) 19, 19 October 1954, ibid; Moshe Dayan, Avney Derekh (Milestones) (Tel Aviv: Idanim, 1976), pp. 123–124. Tsur, Yoman Paris, p. 60, entry for April 7, 1954; pp. 60–61, entry for April 8, 1954; pp. 80–81, entry for July 13, 1954, Mordechai Bar On, Etgar Ve'Tigra (Quarrel and Challenge) (Be'er Sheva: Be'er Sheva University Press, 1991), p. 120.
48 A Meeting between Rober Luc, Deputy Director of the Africa-Levant Department at the French Foreign Office and Maurice Fischer, Israel minister in Paris- Maurice Fischer, to G. Avner, 1 June 1951, State of Israel, Documents on the Foreign Policy of Israel, Vol. 6, 1951 (Jerusalem: State of Israel Archives, 1991), pp. 354–355. S. Divon to M. Fischer, 1 July 1952, State of Israel, Documents on the Foreign Policy of Israel, vol. 7, 1952 (Jerusalem: State of Israel Archives, 1992), pp. 344–345.
49 From G. Jebb, Paris to FO, 26 November 1954, UK- NA, DEFE/7/229; Sylvia K. Crosbie, A Tacit Alliance (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1974), pp. 16–17.
50 NEACC- Israel Ground Weapons Strength, 20 October 1954, UK- NA, DEFE/7/228; Shimon Peres, Kela David (David's Sling) (Jerusalem: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1970), pp. 36–38; Bar On, Sha'arei Aza, pp. 49–50.
51 American Embassy, Cairo to the Secretary of State, 23 June 1955, NA, RG 84, 674.00/6-2355.
52 On the British and American refusal to sell arms to Egypt see DO (51) 20, 17 March 1951, UK- NA, CAB/131/11; Foreign Office to Washington, September 1952, ibid, DEFE/7/225; AEPC, P (52) 20, 19 December 1952, ibid, CAB/131/11; ‘Military Jet Aircraft for the Middle East, C (54) 358’, 23 November 1954, UK- NA, DEFE/7/229; On the American terms for arms sale to Egypt see To: NEA, Mr Jernegan from NE, Mr Dorsey: ‘Israel and Egyptian Requests for Arms’, 25 June 1955, NA, RG 84, 84A.56/6-2555.
53 Rami Ginat, The Soviet Union and Egypt, 1945–1955 (London: Frank Cass, 1993), pp. 111–112, 188–189, 207–219. On the process that led to the conclusion of the deal, pp. 176–171.
54 Dayan, Milestones, pp. 162–175; Sharett, Yoman Ishy, Vol. 5, pp. 1227–1276; Tal, Current Security, pp. 313–327; Tsur, Paris Diary, pp. 189–191, entry for October 27, 1955.
55 C.P (55) 152, 14 October 1955, UK- NA, CAB/129/78; C.M (55) 36, 20 October 1955, ibid, CAB/128/29; ‘The Middle East’, 9 November 1955, ibid, FO/371/121271; Shuckburgh told the Director General of Israel's Defence Ministry, Shimon Peres, that ‘the US and the UK must necessarily nurse their relations with the Arab world and cannot […] sacrifice their major interests there for Israel’. Record of Conversation between Mr C.A.E. Shuckburgh and Mr Peres on 6 July 1955, ibid, CAB/131/16.
56 Memorandum of a Conversation, 26 October 1955, FRUS 1955–1957, XIV: p. 652; Brief for Washington Talks, January/February 1956, UK- NA, FO/371/121270.
57 Memorandum of a Conversation, 30 January 1956, FRUS 1955–1957, XV, pp. 102–107; Memorandum of a Conversation, 31 January 1956, ibid, pp. 109–112; Memorandum of a Conversation, 26 October 1955, FRUS 1955–1957, XIV, pp. 652–653; Memorandum from the Executive Secretary of the NSC to the Members of the Council, 17 October 1955, NA, RG 273, lot file 63 D 351; [UK] Foreign Secretary to the Prime Minister, 6 April 1956, UK- NA, PREM/11/1463.
58 Brief for Washington Talks, January/February 1956, UK-NA, FO/371/121270.
59 Bar-On, Quarrel and Challenge, pp. 121 ff.
60 Evelyn Shuckburgh, Descent to Suez (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1986), pp. 328–330, Entry for 30 January 1956; Palestine Problem, 25 February 1956, UK- NA, FO/371/121725; Memorandum of a Conversation, 31 January 1956, FRUS 1955–1957, XV, pp. 109–112.
61 From B.J.S.M., Washington to the Ministry of Defence, London, 31 January 1956, UK- NA, FO/371/121723.
62 Memorandum from the Assistant Secretary of State to the Acting Secretary of State, 20 February 1956, NA, RG 84, 684A.86/2-2056; COS (56) 18, 10 February 1956, UK- NA, DEFE/4/83; J.P (56) 49 (Final), 23 February 1956, ibid.
63 COS (56) 18, 10 February 1956, UK- NA, DEFE/4/83; Memorandum from the Joint Chiefs of Staff's Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State, 2 February 1956, NA, RG 84, 780.5411/2-256.
64 From C. in C. to F.O.F., Mediterranean, 4 February1956, UK- NA, FO/371/121723; Memorandum from the Joint Chiefs of Staff's Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State, 2 February 1956, NA, RG 84, 780.5411/2-256.
65 From Foreign Office to Washington, 18 March 1956, UK- NA, PREM/11/1463; from Washington to Foreign Office, 18 March 1956, ibid; Memorandum of a Conversation with the President, 6 March 1956, FRUS 1955–1957, XV, pp. 307–308; from Foreign Office to the UK Delegation to the United Nations, 18 March 1956, UK- NA, PREM/11/1463.
66 U.N. document S/3562.
67 Memorandum of a Conversation, 10 February 1956, NA, RG 84, 784A.5/2–1056; Record of Conversation between the Secretary of State and Israeli Prime Minister in Jerusalem, 13 March 1956, UK- NA, FO/371/121725.
68 Selwyn Lloyd, Suez 1956 (New York: Coronet Books, 1980), pp. 45–46.
69 Report by Chairman, Chiefs of Staffs, on visit to Washington, April 3rd–5th 1956, UK- NA, FO/371/121273; Dann, King Hussein and the Challenge of Arab Radicalism, pp. 24–38.
70 Anthony Nutting, No End of a Lesson (London: Constable, 1967), p. 34. For Eden's reference to Nasser as ‘Hitler’, see Shuckburgh, Descent to Suez, p. 345, entry for March 8, 1956; Lloyd, Suez 1956, pp. 47–48.
71 J.P (55) 54 (Final), 18 July 1955, UK- NA, DEFE/4/78. The title of this document is: ‘Israeli aggression – US assistance’; COS (55) 63, 4 August 1955 had the same title, ibid. In J.P (55) 138 (Revised final), 10 Nov 1955, ibid, the planners considered both possibilities—aggression by Israel and Egypt. They regarded Egyptian aggression as ‘a less likely possibility’.
72 C.M (56) 24, 10 April 1956, UK- NA, PREM/11/1463. Despite the shift, the Chiefs-of-Staffs continued to prepare a military reaction against Israel in case it attacked Jordan: Stuart A Cohen, ‘A Still Stranger Aspect of Suez: British Operational Plans to Attack Israel, 1955–1956’, The International History Review (May 1988), p. 10.
73 J.P (56) 76 (Final), 12 April 1956, UK- NA, DEFE/4/86.
74 Lloyd, Suez 1956, pp. 59–60, 174.
75 From Foreign Office to Washington, 1 May 1956, UK- NA, FO/371/121369. This policy was a compromise between two opposing approaches in government circles: Eden advocated strong measures against Nasser and a sympathetic attitude toward Israel's security needs. Officials in the Foreign Ministry were more reserved toward Israel. Anthony Eden, Full Circle (London: Cassell, 1960), p. 330. For the opposing position, see Nutting, No End of a Lesson, pp. 33–34.
76 On the Anderson mission and its failure, see Alteras, Eisenhower and Israel, pp. 165–171.
77 Telegram from the Secretary of State to the Department of State, 8 March 1956, FRUS 1955–1957, XV, pp. 325–326; Diary entry by the President, 8 March 1956, ibid, pp. 326–327; Memorandum of a Conference with the President, 28 March 1956, FRUS 1955–1957, XV, pp. 423–424.
78 Department of State to American Embassy to Paris, 18 January 1956, NA, RG 84, 784A.56/1-1856; from Tel Aviv to the Secretary of State, January 30, 1955, ibid, 784A.56/1-3056; Secretary of State to the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, 16 February 1956, ibid, 784A.56/2-1656.
79 Department of State to [several American embassies in the Middle East], 10 March 1956, NA, RG 84, 784A.56/3-1056; Memorandum of Conversation, 28 March 1956, ibid, 780.00/3-2856; Secretary of State to the Embassy in Paris, 10 April 1956, ibid, 784A.56/4-1056; ‘Arms for the Middle East’, Memorandum by E.M. Rose, 4 June 1956, UK- NA, FO/371/121369; In February 1956, the Administration approved Nicaraguan's sale to Israel of Swedish Mustangs which it had previously purchased: From Stockholm to Secretary of State, 9 February 1956, ibid, 784A.56/2-956; It also encouraged the Canadian government to sell Israel F-86 jets: Memorandum of Conversation, 28 March 1956, ibid. On Canada, the US and arms sales to Israel see, Michael B. Oren, ‘Canada, the Great Powers, and the Middle Eastern Arms Race, 1950–1956’, The International History Review (May 1990), p. 12.
80 Memorandum of a Conversation, 9 April 1956, FRUS 1955–1957, XV, p. 497. ‘Proposal for Stockpiling Weapons for Benefit of Victim of Aggression in the Middle East’, 14 April 1956, ibid, pp. 533–537; Memorandum of a Conversation between the British Ambassador (Makins) and the Counselor of the State Department (MacArthur), 16 July 1956, ibid, p. 840.
81 Bar-On, Shaarey Aza, p. 147; from Washington to Foreign Office, 27 July 1956, UK- NA, DEFE/7/1090; AWP/m (56) 30, 31 July 1956, ibid; Earlier, in March, the Ambassadors Committee learned that despite the objection of the American and British ambassadors in Paris, France sold 25 S-10 guided missiles to Israel at the end of 1955, without reporting to the NEACC or to the Ambassadors Committee. Department of State to American Embassy in Paris, 19 March 1956, NA, RG 84, 784A.56/3-956.
82 ‘Combined UK-USA Action in the Event of Arab-Israeli War’, Annex to J.P (56) 99 (Final), 23 May 1956, UK- NA, DEFE/4/87.
83 From Washington to Foreign Office, 27 July 1956, UK- NA, DEFE/7/1090; ‘Availability of Forces for Action Against Egypt’. Annex to J.P (56) 134 (Final), 29 July 1956, ibid, DEFE/4/89; See also Ben-Gurion Diary, entry for August 3, 1956.