Office of the Historian

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

Washington, February 4, 1963.

Here is the Algeria action program1 you asked for in NSAM 211. I suggest you discuss it with Ambassador Porter when he sees you 12:15 Tuesday.

Things seem to be breaking our way in Algeria. Ben Bella has settled down, patched up his relations with the French and begun focusing on his acute domestic problems. He’s been pressing us for more aid, and I think your intervention has produced a reasonably good response.

This year we’ll (1) launch four pilot rural rehabilitation projects; (2) expand the food-for-work reforestation program; (3) mount an immunization and public health training effort; (4) continue college scholarships, participant training and CARE-Medico teams; and (5) go ahead until the mid-summer harvest with the sizable emergency feeding program begun last summer. Cost will be about $2 million in FY 63 for equipment and technicians, plus at least $80 million in food.

In FY 1964 we’ll continue with perhaps $75 million in PL-480 and up to $15 million in DL and TA funds. Rusk bought Bell’s recommendation that France should handle anything above that level; Bell is also concerned about shortage of funds.

I suggest that we may end up wanting to go higher than $15 million for political reasons. While the French apparently do intend to carry Algeria (for at least $200 million annually), we want enough of a presence to reflect the fact that Algeria is the key to the Maghreb and one of the top new nations in Africa. Moreover, Ben Bella et al have already asked about several projects worth $10-15 million each that tie into our emphasis on rural rehabilitation. But we needn’t decide this issue yet.

Peace Corps hesitations create another issue. Ben Bella specifically asked Porter for PC help, and State thinks such a program “very valuable.” But the PC is overextended in Africa, and is sensitive on the general question of relating Peace Corps to other AID-State planning.

I suggest you put out attached NSAM,2 which generally accepts the State program, but leaves the door open for going a bit higher on aid if it seems desirable and gives the Peace Corps a gentle nudge.

R.W. Komer
  1. Source: Kennedy Library, President’s Office Files, Staff Memoranda, Robert W. Komer, Secret.↩
  2. Document 81.↩
  3. Document 83.↩