Office of the Historian

192. Memorandum From the President’s Special Assistant (Schlesinger) to the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bundy)0

Washington, December 6, 1961.

Ambassador Stevenson’s memorandum for the President of November 13th1 represents substantially the position of all government agencies involved—State, AID, USDA, and Food For Peace.

The background paper and recommended action stems from a meeting which George McGovern initiated in New York on November 10th with the U.S. Representative on the Economic and Social Council, Ambassador Klutznick; Harlan Cleveland’s office.

A second meeting followed in Washington with all interested agencies represented, and instructions were sent on November 14th to the U.S. delegation to the FAO Conference in Rome.2 Those instructions followed the action as recommended in Ambassador Stevenson’s memorandum except for one point. The governing body, which will direct the multilateral distribution of commodities, will be elected jointly by FAO and the Economic and Social Council with each organization designating one-half of the members on the body, instead of entirely by ECOSOC.

McGovern had initiated last April in Rome, with the approval of the President, State and USDA, an offer of $40 million in commodities toward an overall UN-FAO program of $100 million. This offer, first announced by President Kennedy at his press conference of April 22nd [21st],3 was officially ratified by the FAO Conference on November 24th.4 It is understood that the experience of this initial multilateral program will enable us to decide whether at some future date the United States should push for a larger UN food program.

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So far as I can see, everything is progressing smoothly. There is no present need for direct Presidential action. I shall continue to keep in touch with the situation.

Arthur
  1. Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Subjects Series, United Nations, General, 12/61. No classification marking. The word “Noted” is written on the source text in Bundy’s handwriting.↩
  2. Stevenson’s November 13 memorandum, which is developed in two parts, a background paper and recommended actions, is printed in The Papers of Adlai E. Stevenson: Ambassador to the United Nations, 1961-1965, vol. VIII, pp. 148–150.↩
  3. Not found.↩
  4. At his press conference on April 21, President Kennedy announced that the U.S. Government was prepared to contribute $40 million in food commodities toward an initial U.N. reserve of $100 million, which would be administered by the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). For the transcript, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1961, p. 307.↩
  5. See Food and Agriculture Organization, Report of the 11th Session of the Conference, 4-24 November 1961.↩