Eisenhower I

A conflict between U.S. and Soviet allies was almost certain to involve both the Great Powers and the United Nations. The UN Security Council almost immediately passed a cease-fire resolution; a series of increasingly terse diplomatic exchanges between Johnson and Soviet premier Alexsei Kosygin ensued, with the Soviets accusing the United States of not doing enough to compel Israeli adherence to the cease-fire provisions.

In mid-June, Kosygin announced that he would attend a special session of the UN General Assembly devoted to the Middle East situation. He urged the President to come to New York and meet with him; Johnson demurred, and instead suggested that Kosygin come to Washington. Eventually, they compromised, meeting halfway, in Glassboro, New Jersey, from June 23 through June 25, 1967. Middle Eastern affairs were prominent on the agenda.

A few hours after the summit concluded, Johnson phoned Dwight Eisenhower to brief the former President on the conference.

Great Power Relations

President Johnson and Dwight Eisenhower, 25 June 1967, 9.44pm

WH6706.02, 11914-11916

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President Johnson: He came over here to—in my judgment, the way I evaluated it—to give Israel hell. And give us hell. And try to get some of this po’ cat off of him—he smelled bad sending them all that arms and just, by God, getting whipped in three days.

He wanted to divert the attention, and get us on the defensive, and give us hell.

And we didn’t engage him. We just kind of let him falter up there. He was pretty much flopping. He started raising hell with every do-gooder in this country to have a conference.

I said, “Well, let’s see what we do. I want to prepare for it, and what we’re going to talk about.”

They said everything from just a courtesy call to just to meet with him, an exploratory conference. And I finally had Rusk go up, and start out with [Anatoly] Dobrynin, and go to Gromyko, and then go to Kosygin himself, and say, “Now, we’re ready to meet with you. But you come to Washington, or you go to Camp David.”

Wouldn’t go to Camp David because Khrushchev had been there. [Eisenhower chortles.] And wouldn’t come to Washington because the Chinese and the Arabs would give him hell. And wanted me to come sit down in the United Nations, and I said, “I’m not going to do that.”

I just, by God, I’m not going to, every time a man gets on a horse and gallops over here—he hasn’t even told me he’s here yet, officially. Never did tell me he’s even coming.