7. National Security Decision Memorandum 101
TO
- The Secretary of State
- The Secretary of Treasury
- The Secretary of Agriculture
- Director, Bureau of the Budget
- Administrator, Agency for International Development
SUBJECT
- AID and PL 480 Commitments
The President has directed the Secretary of State to submit for approval a country memorandum setting forth the total economic assistance program, including AID and PL 480, for each of the major countries indicated by him. The memorandum should be initiated by the Administrator of AID, and should incorporate the views of the [Page 21] Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Treasury. It should be submitted through the Bureau of the Budget for inclusion of its views, and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs prior to the first major commitment of funds in each fiscal year.
The memorandum should set forth the proposed program for the period under consideration (normally one year) and its implications for the longer run. It should discuss the underlying foreign and domestic policy considerations for the United States, and the relation of the program to specific U.S. objectives in the country. It should also specify the related actions we expect the recipient country to take and the strategy proposed to negotiate and carry out the program. The memorandum should indicate how economic and PL 480 assistance will be coordinated to assure the best use of both resources and effective self-help efforts. It should include the effects of the program on the U.S. economy and balance of payments. Alternative possibilities for both the program itself and negotiating strategy should be presented where appropriate. The memoranda directed by this decision will be coordinated with the overall country studies directed by NSDM 4 for countries covered by that memorandum.
The countries for which programs will be submitted to the President will at present include Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Nigeria. The Secretary of State, in consultation with the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and other interested agencies, shall request the Administrator of AID to initiate other country programs involving issues or matters of concern to the President. Following the same procedure, he shall also request re-submission to the President of country programs already decided in the event of significant changes in circumstances or where original decisions could not be carried out. If the Secretary of State and the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, in consultation with the other addressees of this memorandum, determine that the President has already considered the major issues involved in a country program, they may decide not to submit that program to the President under this directive. (Programs already negotiated for this year need not be re-submitted.) All other country programs will be determined through normal interagency procedures.
These procedures should not delay necessary obligations for continuing activities in Technical Assistance or urgent requirements during the Continuing Resolution period if presentation of a full-year program is impossible.
The present procedure, by which the President must approve all PL 480 agreements, all AID project loans exceeding $10 million, and all AID program loans exceeding $5 million, is hereby rescinded.
- Source: National Archives, RG 59, S/S Files: Lot 83 D 305, NSDM 10. Limited Official Use. On February 19 Kissinger had circulated to the same addressees an earlier draft of this NSDM for their comment by March 3. A copy is attached to an April 4 memorandum from Poats to Hannah suggesting that Hannah take up with Rogers the key role of the Secretary of State in moving forward the foreign assistance papers. (Washington National Records Center, Agency for International Development, AID Administrator Files: FRC 286 73 A 518, IPS 7-1 NSC FY 69 April 1-30, 1969) A copy of Kissinger’s February 19 memorandum and the earlier draft of NSDM 10 is also attached to a February 25 memorandum from Raymond J. Albright to Hirschtritt and Petty at Treasury requesting their action. Albright also attached a copy of NSDM 4, which requested, on the President’s direction, preparation of a series of program analyses for designated countries and regions (none designated) to be used by the NSC as the basis for discussion and decision on policy and program issues. (Ibid., Department of the Treasury, Files of Under Secretary Volcker: FRC 56 79 A 15, AID-Secret)↩