Office of the Historian

184. Memorandum From the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs (Sisco) to Secretary of State Rogers1

Washington, May 12, 1971.

SUBJECT

  • U.S. Policy Toward Yemen—INFORMATION MEMORANDUM

Background

In Riyadh May 2 you told King Faisal you would take another look at American policy toward the Yemen Arab Republic.2

Resumption of Relations

For the past year we have had a small U.S. Interests Section in Sanaa. We expect a Yemeni initiative to elevate this office to an Embassy shortly. The previous Prime Minister, Muhsin al-Ayni, whom you met in New York,3 geared the initiative to elections, which have just ended and brought to office a new Prime Minister, Ahmad Mohammad Numan, who is favorably disposed toward the West. The Yemeni initiative was also tied to improved chances of success in the Jarring mission.

We have repeatedly made it clear that we would welcome such Yemeni initiative to renew relations. We will have to agree on ways to settle our claims for damages resulting from our expulsion in 1967 and must also demand the Yemenis drop charges against former AID officials in Yemen. We are confident we can quickly reach agreement on both problems.

U.S. Assistance to Yemen, 1970–71

1. With U.S.G. Funds

Given the cut in our diplomatic relations, Amendment 620(t) of the Foreign Assistance Act has prohibited any U.S. aid to Yemen other than famine relief. In 1970 we provided over $2 million of food donations to the Catholic Relief Services and WFP for distribution during a famine in Yemen and paid another $300,000 for transportation of some [Page 571] of this food to Yemen. In addition, the Peace Corps, which is not subject to 620(t), has sent a first Volunteer to Yemen to work in a UN project and up to twenty more Volunteers may follow. Furthermore, CU has granted to the American Friends of the Middle East (AFME) $45,000, part of which will be used to finance Yemeni students in Cairo and the U.S. AFME, which has uncovered a number of well-qualified Yemeni students, has requested $42,000 more from CU this fiscal year; this additional grant is still under consideration.

2. Without U.S.G. Funds

With no expenditure of U.S. funds, the Department has been able to perform the following helpful tasks for Yemen, in each case responding to Yemeni requests.

  • —Experimental seeds were procured for a UN agronomist working in the Yemeni Ministry of Agriculture.
  • —We requested The Ford Foundation to fund an engineer to survey the Taiz water system, an AID project which has fallen into disrepair. Ford provided $6,000, and an engineer from a private firm will arrive in Yemen in mid-May.
  • —We also cooperated in finding a U.S. citizen with extensive AID experience in Yemen to head a UN project which will revive a former AID road equipment workshop.
  • —We have endorsed YAR projects under study by the UNDP.
  • —We have brought aid projects for Yemen to Saudi attention; some of these projects the Saudis have already agreed to undertake. Given the YAR’s importance to Saudi Arabia, we do not accept the King’s statement that Saudi Arabia cannot aid Yemen significantly more than it already has.

3. Aid Prospects After Renewal of Relations

Developing any aid program for Yemen will task our ingenuity since, in the short run at least, direct USG bilateral aid will be limited. We tentatively hope, however,

  • —using AID funds, to make feasibility and engineering studies for Yemeni roads, which might subsequently be built with Saudi funds. American companies could provide the technical know-how and management for such road projects.
  • —to launch a program of geologic mapping and resource inventory in Yemen, extending southward the work of the 20-year old U.S. Geological Survey mission in Saudi Arabia. USGS will probably pick up part of the tab, and we will look to the Saudis for the remainder for work which will include $500,000 of aerial photos essential to Yemen’s first cadastral and agricultural censuses and surveys of communications.
  • —to resume AID funding for Yemeni students at AUB and also make available funds for Yemenis to study in the U.S.
  • —to provide new donations of food to Catholic Relief Services. These donations, which are tentatively projected up to $2.5 million, will be used both in child feeding and food for work projects in the populous Yemeni highlands.

In addition, we will:

  • —urge the UNDP to restore and enlarge the Taiz water project, which AID built with such acclaim during the sixties. UNDP’s Yemen Director has shown some interest informally in this undertaking.
  • —play the role of “a broker for Yemen” in the IBRD and IDA; the latter is currently considering other road and infrastructure prospects for Yemen.

As we plan to establish a minimum diplomatic presence in Yemen, our aid efforts have been conceived to minimize staffing. Similarly, we do not anticipate any security assistance or MAP for Yemen, and may not post a defense attaché to our Embassy when it reopens.

  1. Source: National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 1276, Saunders Files, Persian Gulf. Confidential. Drafted by Ransom and cleared by Atherton and in NEA/ARP and AID/NESA.↩
  2. See Document 149.↩
  3. At Rogers’s October 17 meeting with Al-Ayni, Al-Ayni expressed keen interest in resuming diplomatic relations. He emphasized, however, the YARG economic and political obstacles to such resumption without some tangible benefit to balance it out. (Telegram 2534 from USUN, October 17; National Archives, RG 59, Central Files 1970–73, POL 15–1 YEMEN)↩