Office of the Historian

249. Memorandum From the Special Representative for Trade Negotiations (Herter) and the Under Secretary of State (Ball) to President Johnson1

Washington, August 25, 1964.
1.
In the last three months, the Administration has been forced into a number of protectionist moves: the Saylor Amendment,2 the meat bill,3 and the wool textile and shoe missions.4
2.
Pressure is now building in Congress behind a number of additional special interest, restrictive bills. (See attachments)5
3.
Enactment of these bills would:
  • —Materially injure our trading partners
  • —Invite retaliation against U.S. exports
  • —Undermine our bargaining position in the Kennedy Round
  • —Give the Administration a protectionist image
4.
The Administration’s opposition to these bills has been made known—on a piecemeal basis—to the leadership and key committee figures. However, because they are minor and complicated bills, lobbying against each will only have limited effect. We believe they must be attacked as a package, through the congressional leadership.
5.
Accordingly, we suggest that at your Tuesday leadership meeting you emphasize your opposition to this legislation.6 We believe that the best way to ensure death of these bills is through an appeal to the leadership to hold the line.
  • George Ball
  • Christian A. Herter 7
  1. Source: Kennedy Library, Herter Papers, Memoranda to the President, 9/19/63–10/15/65, Box 10. No classification marking.↩
  2. This is the amendment to the Urban Mass Transportation Act summarized in the first sentence of Document 241.↩
  3. See Document 248.↩
  4. Documentation on the wool mission is printed in Foreign Relations, 1964–1968, volume IX. The shoe mission has not been identified.↩
  5. No attachments were found with the source text.↩
  6. No record of a meeting with the legislative leadership on this issue in 1964 has been found.↩
  7. Printed from a copy that indicates Ball and Herter signed the original.↩