Office of the Historian

485. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski) to Secretary of State Vance, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (McIntyre), and the Director of the International Development Cooperation Agency (Ehrlich)1

Washington, October 10, 1979

SUBJECT

  • Additional Assistance for Central American and Caribbean Countries (C)

The President has approved the following increases in US assistance to Central American and Caribbean countries:

—$75 million for economic recovery programs in Nicaragua, to be sought as an FY 1980 Economic Support Fund supplemental authorization and appropriation;

—$10 million for development projects in Honduras and El Salvador designed to achieve early impact, of which $5 million is to be sought as an FY 1980 Economic Support Fund supplemental authorization and appropriation and $5 million is to be obtained by reprogramming FY 1980 Economic Support Funds on a worldwide basis;

—$10 million in Foreign Military Sales credits to Eastern Caribbean countries, for the planned joint coast guard and other purposes, to be provided through reprogramming of FY 1980 FMS funds on a worldwide basis;

—$10 million for development projects, principally public works with high employment impact, in small Eastern Caribbean countries, of which $7.6 million has been provided through reprogramming of FY 1979 AID development assistance funds and $2.4 million is to be provided through reprogramming of FY 1980 development assistance funds. (C)

The Department of State should arrange with the Office of Management and Budget for immediate preparation and transmission to the Congress of the required supplemental authorization and appropriation requests. (C)2

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The Department of State should promptly determine, in consultation with the Agency for International Development and the National Security Council staff, the allocation of the additional ESF funds among projects in El Salvador and Honduras, taking into account the feasibility of obtaining the required political commitments from and executing projects in El Salvador and the relationships of proposed projects to the Central American development program to be organized under World Bank leadership. (C)

The IDCA should promptly determine, in consultation with the Department of State and the National Security Council staff, the allocation of the additional funds for development projects in the Eastern Caribbean. (C)

Zbigniew Brzezinski
  1. Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Brzezinski Office File, Country Chron File, Box 28, Latin America, 10/79. Confidential. A copy was sent to Bennet.↩
  2. For Carter’s November 9 message to Congress transmitting proposed legislation for U.S. assistance to Central America and the Caribbean, including “$80 million in flexible Economic Support funding, $75 million to assist in the reconstruction of the Nicaraguan economy and $5 million for early-impact development projects in other Central American countries,” see Public Papers: Carter, 1979, Book II, pp. 2103–2104.↩