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

182. Memorandum From the Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs (Cleveland) to Acting Secretary of State Bowles⁰

Washington, May 18, 1961.

SUBJECT

• UN Special Fund Project for Cuba

The Problem

The United States, as a member of the Governing Council of the United Nations Special Fund, will be required to act on a proposal by Paul Hoffman, Managing Director, that the Special Fund allocate $1,157,600 to an agriculture research project in Cuba. The Governing Council meeting will be held May 23-26, 1961.

Discussion:

As I explained in our conversation on Wednesday afternoon,¹ we have recommended that the least unsatisfactory course for the United States to follow is to work for deferral of the project on technical economic grounds. If a majority of the Governing Council cannot be secured for deferral, the fall back position of the United States should be a quiet negative vote on the grounds that our questions about the economic soundness of the project have not been answered.

Following your verbal approval of this course of action, we have instructed our Embassies in various countries which are members of the Governing Council to seek support for deferral of the project. We have also informed Philip Klutznick, the United States Representative to the Economic and Social Council, of this decision.

Dick Goodwin of the White House staff has seen this memorandum and has expressed approval of our recommendation. You may wish to inform the President when he returns to Washington, since it will almost certainly be the subject of considerable comment in the press when the Governing Council meets next Tuesday.

The attached paper (Tab A)² has the concurrence of the bureaus listed below. ARA, too, agrees with the conclusions but wishes certain sections of the paper deleted, especially (a) the possibility of explaining a favorable vote on the ground, inter alia, that the benefits of the research project will not be immediate but will accrue to the free government that succeeds the present regime. They would explain the vote solely on the ground that projects should be examined on their economic and technical merits; (b) allusions to the benefits of the project to the Cuban people; and (c) the analysis of the likely foreign reaction to a U.S. effort to defeat the project. These sections have been retained in the paper in an effort to set forth all the possibilities and the merits and defects of each. The ARA memorandum is attached as Tab B.2

Recommendation:

That you inform the President of our decision when he returns to Washington on Friday at your meeting with him on Friday.

0. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 398.051/5-1861. Confidential. Drafted by Ruth S. Gold (E/OFD) and Richard N. Gardner (IO) on May 16 and concurred in by Achilles (S/O), Martin (E), Ball (B), Bell (B/FAC), Labouisse (ICA), and Hays (H).
1. May 17.
2. Not printed.