201. Memorandum From the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (Williams) to the Under Secretary of State (Bowles)0

SUBJECT

  • Aid to Africa in FY 1962

I am greatly disturbed by two developments in connection with our aid program for Africa for this year. I am calling them to your attention because of the serious political consequences that they may have. Both relate to attitudes that we find widespread in the new task forces and informal groups that are reviewing our FY 1962 programs.

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  • First, there seems to be considerable sentiment for deferring the implementation of many of our projects—a view that we should hold back a substantial portion of the limited funds available to us to permit further program reviews and to allow for the consideration of requirements that may arise later this year. If this view prevails, it may be catastrophic for our relations with Africa. In the best of circumstances, we must expect a great deal of disappointment at the quantity of aid and the speed at which it is made available. The pronouncements of the President, in particular, have raised widespread expectations. But I hope we will be able to live with the disappointment if we move forward promptly with whatever funds we have, demonstrating at least our good will and genuine effort to be of assistance.

    I am concerned, too, that in Africa, where our program is largely a new one and where we have relatively little record of accomplishment to which we can point, that further delay (three months of the fiscal year have already passed) will mean facing the Bureau of the Budget, and then the Congress, with almost nothing done. Despite our tremendous needs, we will inevitably be told that we must have had little use for funds in Africa, thus weakening the Administration’s position in FY 1963.

  • Second, I am concerned by what appears to be a disposition to agree to the expenditure of funds in a few countries to the neglect of a great many. I fully support the concentration of the bulk of our funds and argued strongly for this principle before the Congress. But it is a perhaps unfortunate fact of political life that we must have some program—usually a very modest one—in virtually every country in Africa. We simply cannot, at the beginning of the highly publicized Decade of Development,1 tell these badly underdeveloped countries that we are not interested in assisting them. Nor can we tell their governments to rely entirely on the former colonial power, unless we wish to weaken seriously whatever moderate leadership exists.

This is by no means solely a political requirement. Even small sums, expended in carefully selected projects, can often be of great economic value. Many of these countries need help simply to get them to the point where they have the capacity to consider self-help measures of the kind the President has outlined. Assisting them makes sense both for them and for us.

We may already be too late in Africa with too little. Further delay and the lack of a balanced effort could do tremendous damage to our position. It is imperative that we do something to preserve for Africa [Page 305] President Kennedy’s Decade of Development and prevent it from becoming a Decade of Disappointment.2

  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 770.5-MSP/9-2961. Official Use Only. Drafted by Troxel and sent through the Executive Secretariat. Copies were sent to Hartman (B) and Toner (AID).
  2. For President Kennedy’s special message to Congress on foreign aid, March 22, which proclaimed a Decade of Development, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1961, pp. 203-212.
  3. On October 6, Bowles sent a memorandum to Williams thanking him for his September 29 memorandum and expressing shared concern about U.S. aid allocations to Africa for 1962. The Under Secretary indicated his agreement that the United States should have some program in virtually every country, but pointed out that they needed criteria in order to decide how much aid and to whom it should go. (Department of State, Central Files, 770.5-MSP/10-661)