Office of the Historian

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

Washington, December 21, 1966, 2053Z.

CAP 661283. If and when you are ready to make your Indian food decision, you may wish to check this rundown of the related decisions on India and Pakistan you also have to work with.

1.
At the top of the list is the $25 million CARE special nutrition program in India for expectant mothers and children in the worst drought areas. This is a significant effort which could reach 5–7 million of the most vulnerable people, and you could well couple it with whatever announcement you make on the major feeding program. ( I sent you a memo2 and draft press release Friday.)
2.
PL 480 for Pakistan is the next priority since we ought to sign a new agreement next week to keep their pipeline going. I don’t recommend specifically linking this to the Indian program. Ayub resents our linking his programs with India’s and there’s no need to rub in the fact that we have to think of them together. The Paks have already done a good job buying here and elsewhere to cover their own gaps and their agricultural performance has been good. But if we delay a substantial decision too long, they will feel impelled to use so much of their scarce foreign exchange that import liberalization and other desirable development policies will have to be sacrificed. Simply going ahead with the Pak program as soon after the Indian decision as you are ready ought to make your point that these are all parts of the worldwide food problem you are trying to dramatize.
3.
The Pak $70 million loan is the most flexible, though we don’t want to wait too much longer. This is the other important part of Gene Locke’s second round steps to keep your relationship with Ayub developing.3
  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, India, India’s Food Problem, Vol. II. Secret. Received at the LBJ Ranch at 3:51 p.m.↩
  2. Document 403.↩
  3. Telegram 108416 to Rawalpindi, December 24, informed the Embassy that the commodity aid loan for Pakistan had been approved. (National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Central Files 1964–66, AID (US) 9 PAK)↩