Letter to Nasser Concerning Yemen, Arms & Arab Refugees
(April 18, 1963)
This is a telegram from the Department of State to the Embassy in
the United Arab Republic, transmitting a letter from President Kennedy
to Nasser addressing Yemen, arms in the Near East and Arab refugees.
"Ambassadors Bunker
and Badeau have reported to me their recent
conversations with you and Mr. Ali Sabri
and the fine cooperation which you extended
to them. I want to express my appreciation
for your constructive and statesmanlike approach.
I am sure--and I am writing Crown Prince Faysal in this vein also--that
the parties to the Yemen conflict will extend the same cooperation toward
the United Nations Secretary General and his personal representative
as they have to Ambassador Bunker and will fully and expeditiously implement
disengagement and withdrawal from the Yemen conflict. We are counting
on your friendly counsel to the Yemen Arab Republic to assure its cooperation.
Ambassador Badeau has also reported to me that you expressed some concern
to him lest the United States be changing its policy toward the United
Arab Republic. United States policy has not changed, nor do I see any
current reason to change it. While the course of our cooperation inherently
cannot always be smooth, I am greatly heartened by the fact that through
the application of patience, effort and good will we have been able
to cushion the shocks, to find escapes from difficult impasses and to
point the way toward solution of problems that might at first glance
have seemed impossible.
As Mr. Komer told you, I am quite concerned over the risks--and costs--inherent
in the arms spiral in the Middle East. At the same time, I can understand
your own security preoccupations, as well as those of Israel. I can
assure you that we intend to maintain a balanced perspective on this
problem, and to approach it in a fair minded and even-handed manner.
As you know, we regard last December's action by the United Nations
General Assembly as a clear and renewed mandate to continue to try to
help the Arab refugees out of the stalemate which prevents them from
taking a place as useful members of society and which, in this country,
has led each year to an increasing problem for us in maintaining our
support of UNRWA at present levels. Building upon the Assembly's new
resolution and upon the useful exploration which has taken place in
the past year and a half, we are undertaking, as a member of the Commission,
further bilateral talks with the governments primarily concerned. We
approach these in the same spirit of objectivity and humanitarian concern
which has guided our efforts so far. I look forward to hearing about
your talks with Ambassador Badeau on this when other matters permit
you to turn your attention to it.
I should not let the occasion pass, Mr. President, without extending
to you and to your Iraqi and Syrian collaborators, a word of congratulation
on the agreement in principle announced in Cairo on the formation of
a new and enlarged United Arab Republic. It seems that through a process
of firm negotiation a sound constitutional structure is being created
with a view to meeting the aspirations and views of the Arab peoples
concerned.
Sincerely, John F. Kennedy"
Rusk
Sources: Foreign
Relations of the United States, 1961-1963: Near East, 1962-1963,
V. XVIII. DC: GPO,
2000. |