83. Memorandum From the Presidentʼs Special Assistant (Rostow) to President Johnson1
SUBJECT
- Eugene Blackʼs Report on His Trip to Asia
You have agreed to see Eugene Black on Saturday, December 10, at 11:30 a.m. He wishes to report to you on his second trip to Asia as your representative to discuss social and economic development and regional cooperation.2
He will also tell you of a long conversation with Nasser.
Black went to Laos, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Manila and Japan, where he participated with Henry Fowler in inaugurating the governors of the Asian Development Bank.
At each stop Black found continuing high interest in multilateral and regional cooperation, plus active exploration of projects that involve a flow of foreign capital in the area and the institutional framework for increasing their regional contacts. Black confirms the great expectations held for the Asian Development Bank.
He also encountered Asian views that our help is most effective when we
- 1.
- Assist in stabilizing their raw materials prices.
- 2.
- Help them gain easier and expanded access to foreign markets.
- 3.
- Help them cope with problems created by fluctuations in foreign exchange earning capacity.
Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia continue to be highly sensitive to our actions affecting rubber and tin. All resent arrangements which impede the expansion of their textile industries.
In reporting to you Black may stress the following:
- 1.
- The real possibility of misunderstanding and disappointment if we make too much of the $1 billion offer for Asian economic development. He may suggest instead that we think of the offer as an order of magnitude of our intentions, rather than a firm promise for which we will in future be held accountable.
- 2.
- That we seek from Congress in the spring an appropriation of $200 million for special funds for the Asian Development Bank, to be matched equally by Japan and “all others,” for grants and soft long-term lending. This “soft window” might establish special funds for agriculture, Mekong projects, and transportation and communications development.
- 3.
- The desirability of exercising restraint in GSA stockpile disposals and in applying various controls on imports of Southeast Asian exports.
During his trip Black participated in formalizing the Southeast Asia Ministers of Education Secretariat at Manila. Black followed your instructions in presenting our position on a contribution to regional education projects, and found the education ministers generally satisfied.
Black also had hoped to commit our assistance to the Prek Thnot dam project in Cambodia. As you know, Congressional constraints made this impractical for now. Black then attempted to persuade the Japanese to take the lead in a multinational consortium, and we are still pursuing this. (The latest report from Sect. Rusk suggests the Japanese will take the lead in this matter; but movement is now held up because the Cambodians called off the meeting scheduled for last Saturday.)3
Black fully understands some of our Congressional problems—which I discussed at lunch with him—and has offered to lobby for your regional development objectives. I recommend that you encourage him to do so.
- Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Vietnam, SEA Development Program, Vol. II, 1966. Secret.↩
- The President saw Black from 11:59 a.m. to 12:55 p.m. on December 10. (Ibid., Presidentʼs Daily Diary) No memorandum of the meeting has been found. Blackʼs written report to the President, December 9, is ibid., National Security File, Country File, Vietnam, SEA Development Program, Vol. II, 1966.↩
- December 2.↩