Office of the Historian

399. Memorandum for the Record1

Washington, December 9, 1966.

The President last night authorized Walt Rostow to convey the following points to B.K. Nehru:2

1.
It is counter-productive to leak stories to the press and to pressure the President on the food problem. The President is the best friend the Indians have. By working through the press, they make it harder for him to do what he did during their emergency last year and what he may have to do again this year.
2.
The Indians should give equal priority to buying wheat commercially in the U.S. It does not set well for us to read of larger purchases elsewhere when we are carrying the bulk of the concessional burden. (I asked WWR whether the President knew that the Indians intended to buy 50,000 tons and whether we should read his comment to imply that they should buy more. WWR said yes.)
3.
The President can not move until his Congressional group comes back on 23 or 24 December. (However, the President has USDA lining up fast ships to move as quickly as they can after he makes a decision.)
4.

The President is assured that India will be covered for January. He will be in a position to help in February if he gets a favorable report from his Congressional delegation. He can make no commitment now but the Indians should keep quiet and have some faith.

Rostow planned to see Nehru in New York this afternoon.

H.S.
  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, NSC Histories, Indian Famine, August 1966–February 1967, Vol. III. Secret. Drafted by Saunders.↩
  2. In a December 8 conversation with Katzenbach, Johnson complained about a number of news stories he had read suggesting that the U.S. supply of grain to India was dwindling. “This whole mess that the pipeline is going to dry up in January is just a damn lie.” Johnson noted that the pipeline was currently full, and that 1 million tons of grain would be delivered to India in January. He felt that Nehru was contributing to a false impression through his contacts with a number of major papers. He said he was “damn tired of them treating me this way.” He also enjoined Katzenbach to “get out your damn baseball bat” and do something about the people in the State Department who he thought were attempting to put pressure on him on India policy by leaking information to the press. (Ibid., Recordings and Transcripts, Recording of Telephone Conversation Between President Johnson and Under Secretary of State Katzenbach, December 8, 1966, 10:26 a.m., Tape F6612.01, Side B, PNO 34)↩