428. Memorandum from Forrestal to Kaysen, March 191

[Facsimile Page 1]

SUBJECT

  • Clay Report

Herewith the most recent draft of the Clay Report.

I refrain from commenting any further on the Report as a whole; but I do call your urgent attention to the sentence on page 37 which I have underlined. The first clause of this sentence is murderous. It is what a lawyer would call an admission against interest and in effect puts AID in the position of blessing not only the total conclusion of the Report that assistance could be reduced $500 million, but also of endorsing the underlying calculations that go into this figure. I don’t see how the President can now go to Congress with a program that is one cent more than $500 million less than last year’s. The effect of the sentence is to compel the President to argue only against the criteria of the Report and to preclude him from arguing against the process by which the $500-million figure was deduced.

This is particularly disturbing, since it seemed to me to be the one statement in the entire report that Bell could control.

Michael V. Forrestal
  1. Comments on most recent draft of Clay Report. Secret. 1 p. Draft report not attached. Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Subjects Series, Foreign Aid, Clay Committee, Drafts of Report, Box 297.