67. Letter From the Secretary of State to the Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture (Cooley)1
Dear Mr. Chairman: I urged before your Committee in executive session the repeal of Section 304 of P.L. 480 (the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act). I did so in order that this Government would be in a position to make selective offers, on a [Page 192] barter basis, of surplus agricultural products to the European satellites of the Soviet Union.
The peoples of these countries are frequently plagued with food shortages and dietary deficiencies. I believe that it would be helpful if they could know, in a concrete and dramatic way of the bountiful fruits of a society of freedom, which free nations share on a normal basis.
The offers we have in mind would be designed to illustrate and illuminate the possibilities which normally prevail as between free nations.
The suggestions we make do not relate to trade with the Soviet Union itself nor do they relate to the establishment of a normal pattern of trade with the Soviet satellites which might serve either to strengthen the war potential of the Soviet bloc or to entrench the present order in relation to the satellite countries—an order which President Eisenhower and I have repeatedly said, to the Soviet rulers themselves, ought to be changed in the interest of peace and justice.
Sincerely yours,