Israel Ruled out As Possible Beneficiary of Eisenhower Doctrine

President Eisenhower offered an interpretation today of the Eisenhower Doctrine and the Mansfield Amendment that apparently excluded Israel from the Near Eastern states that the United States might help to defend against non-Communist aggression.

The President’s interpretation was given to his press conference in response to a question on the effect of the Mansfield amendment on the original doctrine which was aimed to prevent Communist aggression. The President sought to clarify authority under the doctrine, but his comments did not apply to the Tripartite Declaration of 1950, a different measure having to do with aggression in the Middle East.

Under the interpretation of his powers given by the President today, the United States is empowered to intervene in defense of certain Near Eastern states even if the source of the aggression were non-Communist. He defined these states as “friendly” governments “with which we have associations like military assistance and so on.”

The United States has entered into such programs benefitting Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia but it has refused to extend such a program to Israel.

Recent interpretations of U. S. authority under the Mansfield Amendment are not different from the view taken at the time of adoption of the Middle East resolution, the President said. He added that be was not sure his concept of the amendment was legally correct but that it was his own interpretation at this time.

When the Eisenhower Doctrine was adopted it was first believed that the United States could militarily intervene only in support of a Near Eastern state attacked either by an outright Communist state or one controlled by communism. Recently, commenting on the possibilities in Lebanon, Secretary of State Dulles pointed to the Mansfield Amendment as a possible authority for U.S. military action under the doctrine even if the aggression were not actually from a Communist-controlled source.