Office of the Historian

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

Washington, November 4, 1968.

After clearing with Freeman, Gaud and Katzenbach, in response to your request, I propose you make the following announcement this afternoon on India food:

“The President today authorized the negotiation of a PL–480 agreement with India to provide for the sale of approximately 2.3 million tons of wheat and wheat flour, 90,000 tons of tallow, and other agricultural commodities, totalling a current export market value of $169 million. This program will help India carry out its new agricultural policies which are moving Indian agriculture toward modernization and a decreasing dependence on food aid.”

We propose not to include the economic loans in this announcement. Bill Gaud still needs to work out the details over the next few days, and we will instruct him to go ahead at a level of up to $195 million.

On the Pak side, we don’t believe there will be much reaction to another food deal for India. The tanks—what they most want—do not lend themselves to public announcement because we still have to make our deal with the Turks and even then it will be an arrangement between the Turks and Paks. As for an economic cushion, we think a quiet word [Page 1037] in the next few days from Ben Oehlert on outstanding Pak requests should more than satisfy Ayub. Thus we propose the following:

1.
An immediate telegram to Ankara trying to wrap up the tank deal with the Turks as outlined in our earlier memo2 to you.
2.
Over the next week we will have for Pakistan:
a.
A development loan package up to $70 million, if you approve.3 This is this year’s aid level. The recommendation will be on your desk this week.
b.
Word that we are ready to consider sympathetically their PL–480 request of about $20 million. At the same time, we would tell them that we are ready to make concessions on their usual marketing requirement that would indirectly enable them to increase their earnings from rice exports. The Paks are doing so well agriculturally that they do not need much food aid.

We believe these steps will balance adequately on the Pak side.

There is one final option to consider. John Schnittker wishes you to know that the Indians have today requested 100,000 tons of rice. They need it, and we have abundant supplies. We have not gone into rice for India for several years because of the implications for our rice acreage allotments. Schnittker himself would recommend against doing this now, but he did not want to foreclose it on his own. If you wished to do this, we would include the following as a new second sentence in the announcement: “In addition, the President noted a recent request from India for a quantity of rice which he said would be given careful consideration.” I do not recommend this unless you have reasons for it.

  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, India, India’s Food Problem, Vol. III. Confidential. Sent to Jim Jones for the President and repeated to Tom Johnson in San Antonio. A handwritten note on the telegram indicates the message was sent as White House telegram CAP 82682.↩
  2. Reference is to Document 519.↩
  3. In a November 18 memorandum to the President, Rostow endorsed a recommendation from Gaud and Zwick for a $71 million development loan package for Pakistan. Johnson initialed his approval. (Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Pakistan, Vol. IX, Cables, 5/68–11/68)↩