291. Letter From Prime Minister Gandhi to President Johnson1
Dear Mr. President,
Ambassador B.K. Nehru has reported to me the talk he had with you on the 2nd February. I am grateful to you for receiving him immediately after his return to Washington and for the patient and sympathetic hearing you gave him. Even more, I thank you for your immediate [Page 562] response in making available another three million tons of foodgrains under your P.L.-480 Programme. This sets at rest our immediate anxieties on the food front. We are intensifying our efforts to make other countries join more meaningfully in the international effort which you have initiated to help us.
There is one matter which is still causing me concern. It is so urgent that I feel I must write about it straightaway as it cannot wait until I am in a position to visit you in Washington which would be some time in the later half of March.
Following the unfortunate conflict with Pakistan, there had been a pause in the flow of U.S. aid to India. You have been good enough to release some of this aid recently to help us to meet our fertilizer needs. The cause of our present deep anxiety is that the suspension of non-project aid has left most of our industries desperately short of essential raw materials, components and spare parts for which they have been relying on U.S. sources of supply. Production and employment in many units have already been affected. In another few weeks, we apprehend large-scale unemployment and closure of factories all over the country. I do hope, Mr. President, that this matter will receive your attention in the immediate future as to keep it pending till I am able to come to Washington would only prolong the period for which men and machinery will be kept idle.2
With warm regards,
Yours sincerely,
- Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Special Head of State Correspondence File, India, 4/15/65–2/28/66. No classification marking. Another copy of this letter is attached to a covering transmittal note from Ambassador Nehru indicating that the letter was transmitted to the White House on February 9. (National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Presidential Correspondence: Lot 67 D 262, President—India 1966)↩
- In a February 9 memorandum to the President, transmitting the letter from Prime Minister Gandhi, Komer wrote with regard to her request for economic assistance: “The $100 million program loan should prove a more than adequate answer when the Vice President reaches Delhi.” (Johnson Library, National Security File, Memos to the President, McGeorge Bundy, Vol. 20, 1/3/66–2/23/66)↩