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.77 In Iran, the media gaveextensive coverage to the speech, and leading mullahs contacted the AmericanEmbassy to express their gratitude, with one imam singling out  America sdeep belief in religion as a significant cause of American strength.78 By thismeasure, at least, Eisenhower s emphasis on  spiritual values as an instru-ment to stifle  and contain  the spread of communism appeared to bearfruit.At the same time, Elson departed for a six-week trip to the Middle East.Officially he journeyed in his capacity as Chairman of American Friends ofthe Middle East, but the fact that this was the president s pastor was not lost onthe political leaders with whom he met.Nor was this opportunity for  backchannel diplomacy lost on Eisenhower, who waited eagerly for a report fromhis pastor-turned-ambassador.The president gave Elson a letter of greetingfor King Saud of Saudi Arabia, which likely played no small part in Elsonbecoming the first American clergyman ever to visit Saudi Arabia openly.Elson s meetings with Middle Eastern leaders, in turn, were hardly confinedto ceremonial niceties.He found the young King Hussein of Jordan quiteimpressive, and saw him as a potential leader for the greater Arab world.Elson also received a curious decoration from the Jordanian government.On a visit to the country five years earlier, Elson apparently had identified acertain Jordanian man as a communist.The Jordanians had imprisoned theman, and on this visit, they honored Elson in gratitude for his contributionto their country s domestic security.79In Saudi Arabia, Elson discussed with King Saud the contested status of theGulf of Aqaba, which the Saudis wanted returned to their proprietorship, in76Eisenhower, Remarks at Ceremonies Opening the Islamic Center, Washington DC, June 28,1957.Public Papers of the Presidents: Dwight D.Eisenhower, 1957 (Washington: United StatesGovernment Printing Office 1958), 509 510.77Elson, 157.78 Reaction to President s Islamic Center Address ; Ann Whitman File, DDE Diary Series, Box26, Folder: August 1957 Memo on Appointments; DDE Papers.79June 19, 1957 letter from Elson to Eisenhower; August 5, 1957 letter from Eisenhower to Elson;PPF, Box 913, Folder: 53-B-1 National Presbyterian Church; August 9, 1957 memo of meetingbetween Elson and Eisenhower; Ann Whitman File, DDE Diary Series, Box 26, Folder: August1957 Memo on Appointments; DDE Papers.PROPHET, PRIEST, AND PRESIDENT: THE NEW AMERICAN FAITH 293contrast to America s desire to keep it as an international waterway.Never-theless, the King made clear his enduring bond with Elson s most prominentparishioner, based in large part on the King s recent visit to Washington.Elson also met at length with Egyptian President Gamal Nasser.This tookplace the day after Eisenhower s Islamic Center address, which gave Elsonoccasion to tell Nasser of Eisenhower s own deep spirituality as well as thereligious awakening in America.Although personally charmed by Nasser,Elson noticed some troubling signs.Nasser intimated his growing ties withthe Soviets, and all of the pictures in his office depicted only communistleaders, with nary a single Western official represented.And for the first timeever, the script of a sermon that Elson gave in a local church was inspected byEgyptian secret police, who also monitored the worship service.Nevertheless,Elson found that in almost every country he visited  Egypt, Saudi Arabia,Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, and even Israel  Eisenhower was exceedingly popular, particularly for his spiritual qualities and for his states-manship. 80On returning to Washington, Elson met with Eisenhower to give a detailedreport on his trip.The president also asked his pastor to provide the AssistantSecretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs with an account of what he hadlearned.Elson reported that throughout the region, besides enjoying highpersonal approval, the president s Eisenhower Doctrine had provided a newsense of security.Yet all was not well. In the Arab world you find muchemotionalism and historic hostilities, bordering on the pathological.Israelfears extinction; the Arabs fear expansion by Israel. Concerning the Jewishstate, Elson then made a curious policy suggestion.Though he had foundDavid Ben-Gurion a charismatic and inspiring leader, Elson s distaste forIsrael had not diminished.Counseling against inviting Ben-Gurion to theWhite House for any meetings, Elson held that  it is more important to keepArabs and Jews apart than it is to bring them together. Instead,  what weought to aspire to is to have a guaranteed containment of Israel and preventIsrael from any further expansion.81 Here were Elson s predilections on fulldisplay.Though his analysis had distilled concerns with both Arabs and Jews,his policy prescription centered only on constraining Israel, and placed nocorresponding burden on Arab states to recognize Israel or to refrain fromaggression.Moreover, it is quite telling that he chose to apply America scardinal strategic doctrine   containment  not just to the Soviet Union,but to Israel as well.80Ibid.81Ibid.294 PART TWOEisenhower, for his part, looked to apply some of his pastor s insights toUnited States policy in the region.In the weeks after receiving Elson s reporton his Middle East trip, Eisenhower convened a series of meetings with themembers of his national security team in part to explore how to bolster thereligious dimension of Islamic opposition to communism.In one meetingwith Dulles, Rountree, the Joint Chiefs, and CIA clandestine chief Frank Wis-ner, Eisenhower declared  we should do everything possible to stress the  holywar aspect of theColdWartoArableaders.Dullesinturnproposeda secrettask force through which the CIA would provide arms, funding, and othermeans of support to the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq.82The next year saw the Middle East fraught with even more tension.Sev-eral fragile regimes, including Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq, found themselvesteetering precariously as proxies in the global stand-off between the UnitedStates and USSR [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]