36. Editorial Note
In a memorandum to the President on July 28, 1961, Secretary of State Rusk set forth details for implementing a new system of foreign economic policy coordination. Rusk noted that the Council on Foreign Economic Policy had been abolished on March 12 and its functions transferred to the Secretary of State. In a letter to Congress of May 26 transmitting the foreign assistance bill, the President had indicated that he expected the Secretary of State to become the focal point of responsibility for coordination of foreign economic policy, and to choose appropriate mechanisms for carrying this out. Accordingly, Rusk now designated the Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs to assume responsibility, under Rusk’s direction, for interagency consultation and coordination of foreign economic policy. Rusk’s memorandum of July 28 to the President is printed in Foreign Relations, 1961–1963, volume IX, Document 4.