Office of the Historian

15. National Security Action Memorandum No. 3521

Washington, July 8, 1966.

TO

  • The Secretary of the Treasury
  • The Secretary of Defense
  • The Attorney General
  • The Secretary of Agriculture
  • The Secretary of Commerce
  • The Secretary of Labor
  • The Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare
  • The Special Representative for Trade Negotiations
  • The Administrator, Agency for International Development
  • The Director, Bureau of the Budget
  • The Chairman, Council of Economic Advisers
  • The Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology
  • The Chairman, Export-Import Bank

SUBJECT

  • Bridge Building

The President has instructed that—in consultation with our Allies—we actively develop areas of peaceful cooperation with the nations of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. He has asked the Secretary of State [Page 55] to examine and propose to him specific actions the Government might take. These actions will be designed to help create an environment in which peaceful settlement of the division of Germany and of Europe will become possible.

In addition to the arguments for and against each action, the recommendations to the President should propose appropriate steps for implementation, Congressional consultation, and the like.2

The President has asked that you give your strong personal support to the Secretary of State in carrying out this assignment.

W.W. Rostow
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, POL HUNG–US. No classification marking. A copy was sent to Secretary Rusk.↩
  2. In an address before the National Conference of Editorial Writers in New York on October 7, the President called for better relations with the Communist nations of Eastern Europe; for text of his address, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1966, Book II, pp. 1125–1130.↩