174. Memorandum From Harold Saunders of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy)1
McGB:
In case the President should quiz you about Selig Harrison’s piece on Indian famine (attached),2 it’s too early to tell whether India faces [Page 341] a crop disaster. We won’t have an accurate measure of the summer crop until mid-October. But if dry weather continues another 10 days, the crop will probably fall well short of last year’s.
The one thing that may trigger LBJ reaction is Harrison’s putting the finger right on the President for holding up a full-scale extension of PL 480. He doesn’t link it with Shastri’s visit.
Bell had hoped to send over this week his proposal for a 10-month agreement. However, the President’s disapproval of Title III has thrown him off stride, and he’ll probably wait until he finds out what the President wants. He’ll propose an agreement of the remaining 5 million tons of wheat (plus minor commodities) originally planned. Bowles hopes to back this up with a memo from Subramaniam laying out India’s plans to improve agricultural performance, and we’d weave these in as informal conditions.
- Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Name File, Saunders Memos. Confidential.↩
- Not attached. In an article datelined New Delhi, August 21, Harrison wrote that India appeared to be facing its worst food crisis since 1951 as a result of a persistent drought. (Washington Post, August 22, 1965, p. A25)↩