A Calculated Risk. Evan M. Wilson

      

Publisher’s note: This book was originally published for limited distribution by the HOOVER INSTITUTION PRESS in 1979, entitled Decision on Palestine: How the U.S. Came to Recognize Israel.

      To AMBASSADOR RICHARD B. PARKER, who inspired me to undertake this project, and to all of my colleagues in the old Near East Division of the State Department, who encouraged me to complete it.

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      Obviously, in the preparation of a book that has required some five and a half years of research and study, it is impossible for me to mention all those persons, in the United States and abroad, who have been of assistance to me.

      To begin with, however, I want to express my warm thanks to several of my colleagues from the old State Department who read my manuscript and made many helpful suggestions: Loy W. Henderson, Gordon P. Merriam, Fraser Wilkins, and Robert M. McClintock. The resulting book is really a joint effort on the part of all of us.

      The Historian of the Department of State, Dr. David Trask, and his predecessor, Dr. William M. Franklin, have given me encouragement throughout, and the assistance of Dr. Paul Claussen of the Office of the Historian has been invaluable on many occasions.

      At the National Archives, I received full cooperation from Mr. Milton O. Gustafson, chief of the Diplomatic Branch, and his staff. My thanks also go to the Acting Director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park, Mr. William J. Stewart, and to the Chief Archivist and the Director of the Harry S. Truman Library at Independence, respectively Dr. Philip D. Lagerquist and Dr. Benedict K. Zobrist, and their assistants.

      During the course of my research I paid several visits to the Zionist Archives and Library in New York City, where the Director and Librarian Mrs. Sylvia Landress, was uniformly helpful.

      In England, I received very great assistance from two British colleagues, Sir Harold Beeley, my Foreign Office opposite in the years covered by this book, and Sir John Martin, who dealt with the Palestine question in the Colonial Office for so many years. I should also like to express my appreciation to Mr. Derek Hopwood of the Middle East Center, St. Antony's College, Oxford, and to the staff of the Public Record Office, London.

      In Israel, I received considerable assistance from Dr. Michael Heymann, director of the Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem; Dr. A. Alsberg, director of the Israeli State Archives; and Mr. Ari Rath, senior editor of the Jerusalem Post, who arranged for me to peruse the archives of that newspaper. I am also indebted more than I can say to an Israeli colleague of long standing, H. E. Eliahu Elath, who was the recipient of the official notification in 1948 of President Truman’s recognition of Israel (reproduced here with his kind permission), and to an Israeli scholar, Dr. Amitzur Ilan, who gave me many helpful suggestions.

      Scholars in this country from whom I have received particular assistance are Dr. J. C. Hurewitz, director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University; Dr. George Rentz, formerly of the Hoover Institution and now with the Johns Hopkins University; Professor George Lenczowski of the University of California; and Professor Bernard Reich of George Washington University. I am particularly grateful to Dr. Hurewitz for allowing me to use several of the documents from his two-volume collection as appendixes to this volume. I should also like to thank Mrs. William A. Eddy for the photograph of her husband with Roosevelt and Ibn Saud. Here and there, in the notes to the text, I have identified a number of other individuals who gave me their assistance in particular matters.

      Finally, I should like to thank Mrs. Shirley Taylor and Mr. Russell Bourne for their editorial assistance; Mr. R. David Wert for preparing the maps; Mrs. Silfa Meredith for typing the manuscript; and my wife, for her patience and constant encouragement.

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

       Acknowledgments

       Foreword

       Preface

       Introduction: The Setting and the Cast of Characters

       1 The Biltmore Program Calls for a Jewish State

       2 The United States Finds a Policy

       3 Palestine Becomes a Political Issue

       4 Roosevelt's Last Months

       5 President Truman and the 100,000 Jews

       6 The Abortive Attempt at Anglo-American Cooperation

       7 Bridging the Gap: London Conference Breaks Down

       8 Palestine Before the United Nations

       9 The State of Israel Is Born

       Epilogue

       APPENDIXES

       A Order (No. 21) Establishing the Department of State Division of Near Eastern Affairs

       B Responsibilities of the Near East Division

       C Extracts from Theodor Herzl's Der Judenstuat, 1896

       D Program of the First World Zionist Congress

       E The Balfour Declaration

       F The Zionist (Biltmore) Program

       G Statement for Issuance by the Governments of the United States and the United Kingdom Regarding Palestine

       H Proposed Congressional Resolutions (1944)

       I President Roosevelt to Senator Robert F. Wagner

       J Palestine (A Summary)

       K President Roosevelt's Letter to King Ibn Saud, April 5, 1945

       L Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel

       M The Agent of the Provisional Government of Israel (Epstein) to President Truman

       Notes

       Bibliography