148. Memorandum of Telephone Conversation Between President Johnson and the Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (Mann)1
The President said he had received Mr. Mann’s note.2 He said that he thought it was a little late to get the letter3 changed. The President said he would be glad to see him when he wishes to come. The President said he would like Mr. Mann to get the best economic people thinking about the food shortage—make a special case out of it—there is starvation and famine—and then submit a recommendation to the Congress saying here is the situation, here is what they are asking for, here is a real serious situation and ask Congress to consider it, act on it and dispose of it. The President said he would like to send a special case up rather than taking the responsibility himself.
Mr. Mann said the thing that bothered him was that the Indians might not realize that the timing of this visit may be important. He said he had not said anything to the Indians but he thought that somehow they ought to be made aware of this. Mr. Mann admitted that it may be too late this morning to try to get the letter changed and perhaps we should be working on some kind of talk between the President and Shastri and the President and Ayub. Mr. Mann said if they did not lose their heads over there, we might be able to really accomplish something.
The President said that Mr. Mann should tell Nehru that Bhutto had announced this morning the postponement of the consortium, and that the President was hoping to see Ayub before the consortium was held at the end of September. The President said they might not want to be definite about next year in these circumstances. Mr. Mann said that was his idea exactly. He said he had no intention to press the Ambassador but only to make him aware. The President said he did not want to take the responsibility personally for this. Mr. Mann asked what would happen if these visits came through and we worked out some kind of a sensible arrangement with both countries. He said he did not know if this was possible with Pakistan but he thought it was possible with India. He said in this case, we might go ahead with the original program. The President repeated that he did not want to take this responsibility—he wished the Congress [Page 300] to pass on it. Mr. Mann said he would pass the message on in an oblique way to Nehru.
The President said he would be most happy to see him as soon as the appropriation bill gets through the House. Mr. Mann said he understood. He said he was not going to urge the Ambassador to do anything. He is just going to make him conscious of the situation.
[Here follows discussion unrelated to South Asia.]