President Eisenhower today interrupted a meeting of the National Security Council to go into an urgent top-level conference on the overthrow of the Iraqi Government.
He left the National Security Council meeting to confer with Secretary of State Dulles, Vice President Nixon, Middle Eastern experts of the State Department, and others. Mr. Dulles brought last minute reports to the White House.
President Eisenhower also met today with Congressional leaders at a White House emergency meeting in connection with the Iraqi crisis. Present at the meeting were, in addition to Democratic and Republican political leaders in Congress, ranking members of both parties on the Senate and House Foreign Relations, Armed Services and Appropriations Committees.
Following the meeting, White House spokesman James Hagerty announced that the President has requested the United States mission to the United Nations to convene an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council as early as practicable tomorrow morning in order to consider action arising from the situation in the Middle East. Mr. Hagerty declined to elaborate on the President’s decision and would not specify or speculate on the exact nature of the action desired.
Among those with whom Mr. Eisenhower consulted this afternoon in addition to Secretary of State Dulles, were: Gen. Nathan Twining, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Central Intelligence Agency director Allan Dulles, and top Congressional leaders of both parties. There have been rumors in top Defense Department circles that U.S. military units have been ordered to stand by on alert awaiting UN action.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Government moved to halt delivery of arms and munitions en route from the United States to Iraq. Iraq has received U.S. weapons and military supplies free for a number of years despite protests by many Americans that the arms may one day be used against the West. Only a few weeks ago the State Department announced the supply of military jet planes and additional arms to Iraq.
Chairman Theodore F. Green of the Senate Foreign Relations committee said that the overthrow of the pro-Western Iraqi Government makes it essential “that we take a fresh look at our policies in the Middle East, including the Bagdad Pact which is by this recent action in effect destroyed, the Eisenhower Doctrine which has been ineffective, and at our apparent inability to comprehend the forces that operate in that part of the world.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
