Office of the Historian

87. Memorandum From President Kennedy to Secretary of State Rusk, Secretary of Agriculture Freeman, and the Director of the Office of Food for Peace (McGovern)0

Washington, January 31, 1961.

I believe it would be useful to send a food-for-peace mission immediately to Latin America to explore the manner in which our food abundance can be used to help end hunger and malnutrition in every area of suffering throughout the hemisphere.1

Responsibility for developing and directing the mission should rest with the Director of the Food for Peace Program. However, I believe it should be done in cooperation with the Mutual Security Administrator, the International Cooperation Administrator, and the Secretary of Agriculture.

This mission can have an important effect upon our international obligations and responsibilities. Please give it your full cooperation.

John F. Kennedy
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 800.03/2-161. No classification marking.↩
  2. This memorandum is apparently a response to a January 26 memorandum from McGovern to President Kennedy, in which he suggested that a special food-for-peace mission, composed of representatives from FAO, ICA, and the Department of State and directed by the Food for Peace Office, should be sent to Africa, Latin America, and possibly Southeast Asia. (Ibid., 800.03/1-2661)↩