415. Memorandum From Secretary of State Rusk to President Kennedy 1
SUBJECT
- Harlan Cleveland’s Report on the Congo.2
I am attaching a copy of the report made to me today by the Planning Group we established last month to visit the Congo and [Page 838] recommend U.S. policies and actions for the “nation-building” period ahead. The mission, headed by Harlan Cleveland, included representatives from the Department of Defense and the Agency for International Development as well as the Department of State.
The highlights of the Report are contained in a ten-page Summary entitled “A Plan of Action.”
Reintegration of the Katanga will continue to present important difficulties, but should no longer be considered the central problem of concern to us in the Congo. The central problems we can do something about are the retraining of the Armee Nationale Congolaise (ANC) and the provision of technical and economic aid as part of a vigorous program of financial and economic stabilization.
A striking feature of the Cleveland Report is its stress on the willingness and ability of several other substantial nations to carry significant parts of the aid burden during this next phase. But the fact that a good many countries will be involved means that we will need a strong coordinating mechanism, which can only be the United Nations, working closely with the Congolese Government in Léopoldville.
On the military side, this would call for a (probably Canadian) Brigadier provided to the Congolese by the United Nations; he would arrange for and supervise the retraining activity by several countries (Belgium, Italy, Norway, and perhaps Israel). The United States would be part of the military aid club too, through the provision of logistical support. It appears that the funds you have already earmarked for military aid ($4,000,000 in this fiscal year and $6,000,000 in fiscal year 1964) should be adequate to cover foreseeable needs. These needs do not include weapons, of which there seems to be a plentiful supply in the Congo.
On the economic side, the danger is a runaway inflation fed by uncontrolled government deficit spending. If not checked, this inflation could quickly undermine the success achieved to date in the Congo. The remedy lies in getting control of Congolese Government expenditures and will require both courageous decisions by Adoula to carry out an austerity program and the provision by the United Nations of necessary technical personnel. We propose to get maximum leverage from our assistance and to exercise direct U.S. leadership to see that the necessary steps are taken by the Congolese and by the United Nations, but cannot guarantee success.
It will be necessary to bring the Belgians, the European Economic Community (EEC), the Federal Republic of Germany, the United Kingdom, and other smaller contributors into an aid consortium with us, again under a “UN umbrella”. The report projects a need for essential imports and fixed payments of about $175 million next year. It proposes [Page 839] that we plan to cover up to $80 million through PL 480 food, loans, and a declining amount of grants for import assistance. Loans have not heretofore been utilized in the Congo; but the longer range prospects for a rich and prosperous Congo are so bright that, the report suggests, we should be able to initiate a transition from grants to loans in 1964.
It is not necessary to decide just now on the precise amounts and categories of our aid to the Congo next year. We do, however, propose to take vigorous measures to maximize the contributions of others to the Congo, to encourage the Belgians to do as much as they possibly can, and to encourage the United Nations to take the leadership in organizing and coordinating technical and economic aid both for ANC retraining and for economic “nation-building”. Mr. Cleveland will be seeing U Thant in New York Friday and the Belgians are anxious to learn our views on these matters before the visit of Prime Minister Adoula to Brussels, which starts next Monday.
Your approval is requested for the conduct of these consultations (without commitments as to aid amounts) along the lines of the Summary portion of the attached Report.
- Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Congo, Proposals for U.S. Policy in the Congo. Confidential. The source text does not indicate a drafter, but a draft indicates it was drafted by Cleveland. (Department of State, Central Files, POL 1 The Congo-US)↩
- The Cleveland mission report, “Proposals for U.S. Policy in the Congo,” February 20, consisting of 103 pages and 8 annexes, is filed with the source text. A handwritten note on the report reads: “P approved 21 Feb.” A revised version of the summary, released on March 1 as a Department of State press release, is printed in American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1963, pp. 653-657.↩