The Senate today abandoned an inquiry into State Department policy in the Middle East. A special subcommittee decided to drop the probe because of the vast scope of the undertaking and the prohibition on making vital documents public. It was felt by some that the controversies that caused the probe were alleviated by the Eisenhower Doctrine.
The investigation was conceived as one that might determine if shortcomings of U. S. policy led to the Sinai war and Suez crisis. The subcommittee’s chairman, Sen. J. W. Fulbright, Arkansas Democrat, recommended abandonment of the undertaking. However, he announced that he will take the Senate floor next week for his own personal full-scale review of developments that led to last fall’s crisis in the Middle East.
The State Department had acted in response to the subcommittee’s request by furnishing files on its consideration of the Palestine issue before emergence of Israel and other matters. Security considerations required that much of the material furnished the subcommittee remain secret.
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