President Nixon made support of Israel an official part of American foreign policy for the 1970s. In his “State of the World” report delivered today to Congress, Nixon said the United States would press for peace with integrity in the Middle East. “In the meantime, however, I now reaffirm our stated intention to maintain careful watch on the balance of military forces and to provide arms to friendly states as the need arises.” At a press conference before the report was released, Nixon explained that “peace cannot be built by abandoning our allies.”
The report emphasized the dangers of the growing Soviet influence in the Middle East and warned: “The United States would view any effort by the Soviet Union to seek predominance in the Middle East as a matter of grave concern.” A top administration official who worked on the report said that keeping the Soviet Union out of the Middle East had always been an element of American foreign policy, but it had never before been so strongly stated. He said that the Russians have interests in the Middle East “that go beyond the Arab-Israeli dispute.”
The thrust of the Middle East statement which comprised six pages in the 119 page report, aside from committing the U.S. to Israel, was a stated recognition of Israel’s right to independence from U.S. influence. “I believe the time has passed in which powerful nations can or should dictate the future to less powerful nations,” Nixon wrote. In his press conference, Nixon called the report a “watershed” in American foreign policy, in which he was re-examining U.S. commitments around the world to make them consistent with U.S. goals.
A GOAL OF U.S. AND OTHER GREAT POWERS IS TO KEEP THE LID ON MIDEAST FIGHTING
One goal of the U.S.–and of other great powers with interests in the Middle East–Nixon said, was to keep fighting from breaking out, because of the secondary conflict in the Middle East: “the rivalries and interests of the major powers themselves. One of the lessons of 1967 was that local events and forces have a momentum of their own, and that conscious and serious effort is required for the major powers to resist being caught up in them.”
The report deplored the Soviet Union’s lack of “practical and constructive flexibility” in Four Power and Two Power talks on the Middle East. Each nation concerned (in developing peace) must be prepared to subordinate its special interests to the general interest in peace, the report said. “We shall continue to participate in the dialogue so long as we can make a contribution,” Nixon wrote. An administration official added that the President believed “the best way to peace in the Middle East is for the powers to use restraint.” The administration feels now that the Middle East–and especially Israel–is meeting its own needs from its own resources; traditional foreign aid is neither necessary nor desirable. The U.S. must come up with new ways to help Israel and other friendly Middle East countries.
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