426. Letter From President Eisenhower to President Bourguiba1
Dear Mr. President: Thank you for bringing to my attention, in the letter brought to me by Ambassador Bourguiba on October third,2 your feeling that the assistance we have been furnishing your country is insufficient to enable you and your courageous people to achieve the economic goals which you have set for yourselves. I had assumed that the $20 million in Special Assistance, plus the substantial Development Loan Fund loans and very large wheat shipments which we have provided over the last twelve months, combined with the spirit and [Page 904] industry of your people and the large supplemental expenditures by your own government, were sufficient to ensure a major degree of progress toward those goals. If this is not so, I agree that we both must take another look at the problem and see what can be done to enable Tunisia to succeed.
I asked Under Secretary Dillon to give close personal attention to your problem as soon as I received your message, and he advises me that the first step both of our governments might find useful would be a review at a relatively high level of the nature and dimensions of the problems you face and the most effective means by which they may be met. If you agree, our people will be available to meet with yours in Tunis whenever you desire.
I realize planning takes time even with the very best intentions on both sides. In order that the planning required will not be unduly hurried, and in order to insure that the current progress of your country is not slowed down, I am instructing Ambassador Walmsley to make available immediately to your government $10 million in cash out of the $20 million we had planned to provide in Fiscal Year 1961. If, after the planners have arrived at relatively firm conclusions, it seems that more economic assistance will be required, I will do my best to meet the situation insofar as it is possible to do so.
We shall, of course, continue to make available sufficient wheat and other surplus commodities to enable you to continue your present work relief and child feeding programs. I also understand our Development Loan Fund has under active consideration a loan request for your agricultural development bank which I hope can be agreed upon soon.
Before closing, Mr. President, permit me to take this opportunity to thank you and your country’s excellent Ambassador, Mongi Slim, for the leadership you have displayed both in the work of the United Nations and in other councils outside of that organization. I know it is the hope of both of us that some way be found towards a lasting peace, and I also know both of us believe the United Nations, as presently operated, is the best forum so far devised in which our objective might be obtained. By continuing to offer your country’s wise counsel, especially in helping younger African nations to understand the differences between the Free World and the Communist bloc both as to their goals and as to the means used to attain them, you will have performed a great service for all humanity.
I am quite certain the experts of our two countries will be able to arrive at mutually satisfactory conclusions regarding the economic problems of Tunisia and how they can be best solved. If for any reason [Page 905] it appears to you that sufficient progress is not being made in the next few weeks, do not hesitate to write me again.3
With warm regard,
Sincerely,
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, International File. Confidential; Priority. Transmitted to Tunis in telegram 431, October 17, which is the source text. Following President Eisenhower’s typed signature, telegram 431 concludes: “Signed original follows by pouch. White House does not desire release above message.”↩
- See supra.↩
- Telegram 499 from Tunis, October 20, reported that Walmsley and USOM Director Lavergne delivered the letter to Bourguiba at 11 that morning. Bourguiba had reacted favorably to the idea of a joint study. (Department of State, Central Files, 611.72/10–2060)↩
- Telegram 431 bears this typed signature.↩