44. Memorandum From Samuel E. Belk of the National Security Council Staff to the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy) and the President’s Deputy Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Rostow)1
SUBJECT
- Foreign Students
During the course of attempting to get information in the State Department about some Angolan students, I became aware of a serious short-coming in the procedures followed in handling foreign students in this country.
There are, as possibly you know, some 50,000 foreign students in the United States who can represent an enormous potential for good or ill; particularly with respect to the newly emerging nations in Africa and Asia. The future relationship between the United States and these nations will be determined very largely by the attitudes of the leaders of those nations toward us. To send back students who have become disillusioned and embittered after studying in this country is the height of folly—it would be better not to have them than to convert them into enemies. Since the students are in the United States because we want them here and since the national interest is involved, surely it is the responsibility of the U.S. Government to do whatever is necessary to insure that the minimum of ill will and the maximum of good will results from their stay in the United States.
With due respect to the many private and voluntary groups and agencies which offer their services to these students—I am told there are 53 such groups in the District of Columbia—too much is at stake to leave the welfare of the students entirely to uncoordinated private enterprise. The fact that many foreign students already have become embittered by their experiences in this country is proof that more needs [Page 127] to be done. It would appear that there is a definite requirement that the U.S. Government concern itself with the welfare of the students. It could be done by creating an Office for Foreign Student Affairs in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, which would:
1) serve as a clearing house for information about all foreign students resident in this country;
2) encourage the extension and improvement of facilities—public, private, university, and institutional—for advising and guiding foreign students. This office would particularly encourage educational institutions attended by foreign students to have full-time, qualified foreign student advisors and, if necessary, would provide funds for this purpose.
3) make available information about employment opportunities for foreign students;
4) in so far as the regulations of immigration and naturalization service permit, encourage the business community to provide employment opportunities for these students as a means of helping them to secure a) additional income and b) skills;
5) take the initiative in arranging for programs of financial assistance to students where such are required;
6) help the colleges and universities finance special academic programs for these students where they are needed;
7) transmit to the universities Government funds which may be appropriated for the above purposes and, serve as a channel through which private funds might also flow;
8) develop legislative proposals for better foreign student programs in the United States.
The man who flagged the problem for me was Colonel Francis Miller, Special Assistant to Phil Coombs; I hasten to add that most of the ideas expressed above are his. Coombs thinks the creation of such an office is a splendid idea, but he is leaving for two weeks in Latin America and all indications are that lack of funds and procedures in the bureaucracy will delay any real action for an indefinite time. I share Miller’s conviction that we should move fast on this one and that is why I think it should be given a push by the White House. I think it is the kind of problem that would be of immediate concern to the President, especially in the light of the unfortunate experiences of some of the students who were brought to the U.S. by the Joseph P. Kennedy Foundation. Also, the town is filled with intellectuals who certainly must feel that this is the kind of problem that should be solved now. A new academic year is almost upon us and 50,000 foreign students [Page 128] need help and guidance. Do you agree that this is an area in which Presidential action might be desirable?2
- Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Subjects Series, Box 296, Cultural and Social Activities, General, 1/61–8/61. Confidential. Bundy wrote in the top right-hand corner of the memorandum: “ask Mr. Belk to speak to me at staff mtg Fri A.M.”↩
- According to an August 8 note from Belk to Rostow, Belk had prepared a memorandum from the President to Rusk regarding foreign students. Belk added that if Rostow did not think that the memorandum adequately explained the problem, Rostow might attach a copy of Belk’s August 3 memorandum. (Ibid.) Rostow sent a copy of the draft Presidential memorandum to Bundy under an August 8 handwritten note, commenting that he thought that the August 3 memorandum should be attached to the draft memorandum to Rusk. He inquired: “Would you mail it in? Walt.” (Ibid.) The draft Presidential memorandum was not found. However, Belk, in an October 27 memorandum to Bundy, indicated that Coombs planned to host, at the Department of State, a meeting on October 30–31 of representatives of “organizations concerned with foreign student affairs in the United States.” Belk stated that in light of the “foreign student situation,” that it would “be helpful if the President sent a short message to them.” Belk attached a draft, indicating that he would either bring the message to the Department for Coombs to read “or read it to the group myself.” Bundy wrote in the margin: “Ok. Give it to Coombs to read.” (Ibid., Cultural and Social Activities, General, 9/61–12/61) The message from the President is printed in Department of State Bulletin, November 27, 1961, p. 894.↩