Office of the Historian

149. Memorandum From Robert W. Komer of the National Security Council Staff to President Kennedy0

Washington, March 28, 1963.

Secretaries Rusk and Gilpatric want five minutes with you before 4:00 p.m. meeting with Hassan to describe their talk with him this morning.1 They have a draft letter (for later exchange between Rusk and Balafrej) describing base arrangements.2 It will probably be the take-off point for this afternoon’s discussion.3

Hassan is willing to let us stay on at Kenitra under cover of running a Navy and commo training program. He wants no standby military presence at USAF bases but would like a civilian contractor to maintain them until Moroccans ready to convert. He also wants an inventory of non-military equipment we can turn over.

You’ll also have a chance this afternoon to get Hassan’s first reaction to our aid package. This morning Rusk gave Balafrej an aide-memoire4 presenting our earlier fallback position as our initial offer. Rusk may recommend a new fallback offer—raising FY 1963 SA from $20 to $30 million and raising DL minimum for FY 1964 and FY 1965.

I’d urge that our interests in Morocco, including Kenitra, simply don’t justify more aid. AID feels the same way. So urge you resist upping FY 1963 SA and rely for elbow room on line that we’ll consider any good project loan applications Moroccans come up with. Why not tell them we can move Kenitra to Spain for $10 million and don’t see why we should pay more when we’re giving up three SAC bases. My sense is that the Moroccans will buy what we’ve offered, even if reluctantly. Hassan needs us, and French cushion of $56 million in FY 1963 and again in FY 1964 means he doesn’t really need our aid.

Hassan’s third meeting with you is Friday afternoon5 which will give you a chance to wrap up leftover details and put final stamp of [Page 229] approval on the communique. King continues to press for small meetings, so you may want only Rusk and Gilpatric from our side this afternoon.

R.W. Komer6
  1. Source: Kennedy Library, National Security Files, Countries Series, Morocco, Hassan Visit. Secret. A handwritten notation by Komer on the source text reads: “Mac—I gave this to Pres. but I don’t think I’ll win.”↩
  2. Secretary Rusk and Deputy Secretary of Defense Gilpatric met with King Hassan and Foreign Minister Balafrej at 10:30 a.m. on March 28. The conversation is recorded in a memorandum of conversation that is in Department of State, Central Files, POL MOR-US.↩
  3. Not printed. (Ibid., Conference Files: Lot 66 D 110, CF 2235)↩
  4. President Kennedy and King Hassan met at 1:15 p.m. on March 28. A memorandum of conversation is ibid., Central Files, DEF 15-4 MOR-US.↩
  5. Not printed. (Ibid., Conference Files: Lot 66 D 110, CF 2235)↩
  6. Kennedy and Hassan met at 4 p.m. on March 29. The conversation was recorded in three memoranda of conversation that are ibid., President’s Memoranda of Conversation: Lot 66 D 149.↩
  7. Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩