269. Editorial Note
The need for increased food production and the problem of rapid population growth in the developing world became linked as foreign policy issues during the Johnson administration. These issues were comparatively new ones, which had previously been left primarily to private citizens, universities, and institutions such as the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and The Population Council. President Eisenhower discussed population growth in December 1958 and remarked that “something drastic” had to be done to solve the problem, but he “certainly did not know how to get started on this solution and he furthermore could not himself get it started.” See Foreign Relations, 1958–1960, volume IV, page 439.
According to a July 1968 State Department study, the turning point for U.S. Government interest came in July 1959 when then President Eisenhower appointed General William H. Draper, Jr., to study U.S. assistance programs and rapid population growth. (AID Circular Cable PA–201, July 13, 1968; National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Records of the Department of State, Central Files, 1967–69, SOC 13–3) The President, however, was opposed to any statement of policy by the U.S. Government on the subject of birth control and felt that foundations and private citizens must be the ones to come up with a solution; see Foreign Relations, 1958–1960, volume III, page 226.
In 1961 President Kennedy discussed the “staggering” magnitude of the population growth problem in Latin America in his first message to Congress on foreign aid. See Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1961, page 206. During his administration, the United States awarded a grant of $500,000 to the World Health Organization for research on fertility in May 1962 and openly supported UN programs to study the nature and scope of population growth. (AID Circular Cable PA–201, July 13, 1968; National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Records of the Department of State, Central Files, 1967–69, SOC 13–3) The President, however, spoke of the problem only in terms of relieving hunger; see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1963, page 435.
The growing problems began to change the opinions and attitudes of knowledgeable decision-makers. In October 1963, only 4 years after his earlier statement, former President Eisenhower said: “The time has come, also, when we must take into account the effect of the population [Page 478] explosion on our mutual-assistance system. …Unless we do, it may smother the economic progress of many nations which, with our technical and economic assistance, are striving to build a decent standard of living.” (AID Circular Cable PA–201, July 13, 1968; National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Records of the Department of State, Central Files, 1967–69, SOC 13–3)