Office of the Historian

397. Telegram From the President’s Special Assistant (Rostow) to President Johnson in Texas1

Washington, November 28, 1966, 2338Z.

CAP 661088. To the President from Walt Rostow. State wants your clearance on the following deal.

1.
The Canadians would put up 21 million dollars in special food assistance to India as a pure grant. They may be announcing this in any case this afternoon or tomorrow morning. It consists of 150 thousand tons of wheat plus $9 million worth of flour, milk concentrates, etc.
2.
We would put up 500 thousand tons of grain valued at $35 million on concessional terms (PL 480 Title I).
3.
The Indians would agree to buy either from us alone (or from us and the Canadians) an additional 500 thousand tons of grain. (The Canadians may take the view that it is inappropriate, given the Indian foreign exchange position, to buy grain now. Besides, they may think that it would fudge up their normal commercial marketing arrangements. In that case, the 500,000 ton order would come to us.)
4.
This would be the nut of the deal. Are we empowered to put this deal to the Indians, once we have confirmed the Canadian $21 million grant offer?
5.
In addition, we would go out promptly to the Australians and ask them to put up 200,000 tons of grain on concessional terms. Our people think we might end up getting 100,000 tons, but it will take time for two reasons. First, the Australians are only now gathering in their harvest [Page 774] and don’t quite know where they stand. Second, they haven’t yet moved over like the Canadians to the idea of concessional grain. State does not think the deal should be held up until the Australians come round.
6.
We would also go out to the French with a request that they put up some grain on concessional terms. We are not optimistic.
7.

For your information, the last grain ship carrying wheat under present agreements from the U.S. to India will leave on December 7 and arrive by mid January.

Grain arrivals from all sources now look as follows: October 918,000 tons; November 820,000 tons; December 320,000 tons; January 564,000 tons; February zero.

In short, no grain arrivals are yet firmed up between mid January and the end of February.

8.
The best estimate we have for the current harvest is 78.5 million tons, not 84 million tons. The Indians are projecting higher figures in order to avoid panic and to get through their elections.
  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, India, India’s Food Problem, Vol. II. Confidential.↩