Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume IX, Foreign Economic Policy

111. Letter From Secretary of Agriculture Freeman to the Under Secretary of State (Bowles)⁰

Washington, May 25, 1961.

Dear Chet: Thank you for taking the time to read my memorandum¹ and to think about my views in connection with foreign aid administration and to write me your long and detailed letter of May 19.² You have had a great deal more experience with this than I, but I must say that I am fearful that a mistake may very well be made in connection with the nature of the new aid agency.

Since receiving your letter I have carefully canvassed a number of the people here in our Department; there are literally hundreds of them who have served in various capacities overseas, many of whom have been involved from the very early days of the aid programs and have operated under different kinds of organizational setup. Without exception, they feel strongly that at the present time and place—and particularly in the under-developed Nations—it is crucial that we do the best job possible, obtain the best people, and have a continuity of operation which can best be accomplished through the medium of our operating departments.

It would appear from some of the discussions that we may end up somewhere in between in connection with this with a good deal of delegation in fact, if not in theory. For my part, I have expressed this viewpoint as strongly as I could and I hope it will be recalled; in any event, we in Agriculture are anxious to do a job.

I hope as the new agency is launched that you will be able to give it some of your personal attention, Chet, for it will be very important how initial relationships work out. We in Agriculture expect to have in a few weeks an evaluation of some of the key nations in terms of both the use of food and technical assistance in agriculture and also what we think ought to be done. We are anxious to move ahead and prepared to give of our resources in making development programs work in crucial areas around the world. As always, I expect those who are willing to work and have some resources to work with will have a chance to use them and I am assuming that will be the case here.

In any event, thanks for your letter. I hope we have time to visit some day soon.

Sincerely yours,

Orville

Chet—We just want to do a job & not from left field where this Dept. has been for 8 years—Tell us what to do & we will go!³

0. Source: Washington National Records Center, RG 286, AID Administrator Files: FRC 65 A 481, Agriculture, FY 1962. No classification marking.
1. Presumably reference is to Freeman’s May 5 memorandum to the President. See the Supplement.
2. Document 110.
3. The postscript is handwritten. For additional correspondence on the question of the responsibilities of the Department of Agriculture in the foreign assistance program, see Freeman’s May 25 letter to Secretary Rusk, Secretary Rusk’s August 3 letter to Freeman, Freeman’s June 30 letter to Bowles, and a September 20 memorandum from Joseph S. Toner, ICA Executive Secretary, to John O. Bell (B/FAC), all in the Supplement.