113. Editorial Note
The fifth meeting of the Development Assistance Group (DAG) met in Tokyo July 11-13, 1961. U.S. memoranda, all dated June 24, which elaborated the administration’s positions on several specific issues, were distributed to the participants in advance of the meeting. (Department of State, Conference Files: Lot 65 D 366, CF 1922) Extensive documentation on the Tokyo meeting is in Department of State, Central File 398.00-TO.
James W. Riddleberger, head of the U.S. Delegation, presided over the DAG sessions, which discussed incentives to private capital investment in developing nations and the important role of public investment. The member nations created a working group to prepare recommendations for implementation of the common aid effort, including the issue of equitable sharing of foreign assistance. They also decided to coordinate the common aid effort more closely with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and agreed in principle to set up an OECD Development Center. In an address before the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa on May 17, President Kennedy had suggested such a center “where citizens and officials, and students and professional men of the Atlantic area and the less-developed world can meet to study in common the problems of economic development.” For text of the President’s address, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1961, pages 382-387. For text of the DAG communique, July 13, see Department of State Bulletin, August 14, 1961, pages 302-304.