136. Memorandum From the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy) to President Johnson1
Agenda for Tuesday Lunch
There are a number of special issues which need brief discussion in order to have your guidance clearly understood, and it may save you time to list them this evening.
[Here follow background summaries of unrelated agenda items.]
3. The India-Pakistan problem.
Both on Pakistan and India, it is time for specific guidance from you. In the case of the Paks, what is now needed is decision to postpone the Pak consortium scheduled for July 27. You have approved this postponement in principle, but we have not made a direct instruction on it, and that is what will be needed. There is also a smaller matter of Pakistan year-end arms purchases which Dean Rusk may bring up for decision. This is an $8 million straight sale which could go either way, depending on whether you want the foreign exchange or the signal to the Paks.
On the Indian side, the principal problem is PL–480. The program is held up, in accordance with your instructions, but the Indians have been fobbed off with a series of stories about technical difficulties, and they simply do not understand that the United States Government is not going to come forward with any proposal at all until they come in and ask us for it in a serious political way. As a practical matter, they may not get this signal unless we make sure that it is communicated to [Page 285] them, and I think it may be time for you to authorize such a communication. It would have to be very skillfully done, and I think Rusk himself may be the man to do it. But you and he should have a very clear understanding of exactly what is to be communicated. Are we talking about not having a PL–480 agreement? Or is there a particular condition attached to it which Rusk should know about?
[Here follow summaries of unrelated agenda items.]
- Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Files of McGeorge Bundy, Luncheons with the President, Vol. I (Part 1). Secret.↩