[1] The proposal came four months after the approval in the General Assembly of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine which had been vigorously supported by the United States, and represented a major shift in policy in response to the ongoing 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine.
According to the Truman Library, Truman wrote a number of personal statements in the following days recording his perspective ahead of the announcement on March 25:[3] The trusteeship proposal was supported by Loy W. Henderson, head of the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau, who opposed American support for partition since he believed it would hurt U.S. interests in Arab countries.
The proposal was drafted by Clark Clifford, White House Counsel and Max Lowenstein.
Such trusteeship was proposed only after we had exhausted every effort to find a way to carry out partition by peaceful means.
Trusteeship is not proposed as a substitute for the partition plan but as an effort to fill the vacuum soon to be created by the termination of the mandate on May 15.