Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume IX, International Development and Economic Defense Policy; Commodities

144. Memorandum of Conversation¹

Washington, February 15, 1968.

SUBJECT

• Ambassador Martin’s Review of the DAC Operations and Related Development Subjects

PARTICIPANTS

• John M. Leddy, Assistant Secretary for European Affairs
• Edwin Martin, Chairman of the DAC
• George S. Springsteen, Deputy Assistant Secretary for European Affairs
• Abraham Katz, Director, EUR:RPE
• Ruth H. Phillips, Deputy Director, EUR:RPE

1. Recent Conversations in DAC Capitals

Ottawa. Martin² has recently seen Maurice Strong and Langley in the Canadian Foreign Office and is pleased with their high level of interest in expanding their aid program. In particular, the Canadians want to increase their role in the Caribbean where they have significant commercial interests and think they can make a difference. They are also interested in doing something in the Francophone area in Africa. It was agreed among the participants that these are good developments. Martin was told by the Canadians that they plan to increase their aid in the next year. There is no problem in obtaining approval of aid programs in the Parliament—in Canada public opinion in favor of aid is ahead of the government.

London. Martin saw Sir Andrew Cohen, Jeffrey Wilson and Denis Ricketts and was also pleased with what he learned from these sources. Despite austerity in the U.K., the British will be committing more funds for aid in 1968 than in 1967 and are also doing some intelligent things in the technical assistance field.

United States: Informal Meeting with Key DAC Countries. Martin spoke with top UN officials and with influential people in nongovernmental organizations and private industry, covering a wide range of subjects related to aid and development. As a result of these conversations, particularly with the Ford Foundation (Dave Bell), Martin said he had decided to organize the small, informal meeting of representatives from key DAC countries—the U.S., Canada, France, Germany and Japan—on May 4 and 5 in the U.S., probably at Airlie House, if this is acceptable to Bill Gaud. This is a change from his earlier idea to have the meeting in Europe, possibly under Ditchley auspices. Martin has invited, on a tenative basis, Andrew Cohen, Dave Bell, Paul Hoffman, Maurice Strong and others and will be talking to Bill Gaud later today. He is also attempting to get George Woods to attend, on an informal basis, possibly along with McNamara.

Martin is now thinking in terms of having the Society for International Development (SID) sponsor this meeting and said he would be in touch with Bob Asher before he left Washington to initiate this approach. The agenda Martin proposed for the meeting is: 1) an appraisal of the development situation following UNCTAD II; 2) how to make the Woods proposal for a “Grand Assize” most useful; 3) consideration of priorities in the DAC work program; 4) discussion of how to minimize the impact of the balance of payments problem on development and the geographic distribution of aid.

2. Proposed Parliamentarians’ Meeting on Development

Martin has been following up the idea of another DAC Parliamentarians’ meeting with Senators Harris and JAVITS, Red Dowling and Joe Johnson. The proposal for a meeting in the U.S., Martin has learned, was blocked by Senator Fulbright and there is generally a feeling here that there are too many Parliamentary groups already meeting. Martin is now considering an informal, ad hoc, but permanent, arrangement for DAC Parliamentarians’ meetings. He is thinking in terms of either SID or SAIS sponsorship. Dave Bell has told Martin that Ford would provide the money for the meeting.

3. DAC—Public Relations

Madame Tenzer, formerly of the Belgian OECD Delegation, is now working for DAC on public relations, attempting to translate technical aid material into popular form. She will be coming to Washington in March for an AID meeting and Martin suggests that we talk with her at that time. Martin is looking for snappy success stories on development, involving people. He has been promised help on this by the Canadians and British and assumes we will also contribute.

4. “Grand Assize”—-The Woods Proposal

Martin reported on his conversation with Woods on the Grande Assize, in which Woods emphasized that he considers this a purely personal operation and does not want anyone else to intervene on arrangements or representation to the meeting. Woods is emphatic that Sir Oliver Franks head the group as Chairman. Franks would consult with key governments for appointees to the group. Despite the personal aspect of the operation, Woods has also said there would be Bank money for the operation. He told Martin he wanted a DAC observer in the group. Woods has resisted pressure for UNCTAD sponsorship for this operation. It is now agreed that this will be a donor countries operation and that it will continue after McNamara comes on board. The Dutch have recently stated their opposition to the Woods proposal, insisting that it be done through the UN. Although the U.S. has at some levels been generally favorable toward the Woods proposal, the official U.S. position is not entirely clear and Martin hopes there will be further consideration and clarification.

5. DAC Operations

a. Portugal. Ambassador Martin wanted advice on how to treat Portugal which is refusing to take part in the annual aid review and generally not playing the game in the DAC. He was advised that if they did not abide by DAC rules, they should not remain a member of the Committee.

b. Work Program. On the DAC work program, Martin said he was planning to play down the financial and statistical work in the DAC, improve the quality of the focus and content of the work program, in particular to emphasize coordination of technical assistance and research.

c. Food. Martin is planning a new initiative on the food problem, taking off from the Secretary General’s report on food and agriculture. He is proposing to examine the food situation in the five principal deficit countries hoping to utilize the DAC, bilateral channels and the staff of multilateral organizations. The major obstacles to food production in these countries would first be reviewed with the donor countries, with a view to determining their programs to assist in meeting LDC needs. Later, there would be consultations with the recipient countries, possibly through the Development Center, to determine what they were doing to match their programs and resources with the donor country programs. Martin said that in the review with the donor countries the emphasis would be on adaptive research and technical assistance. He has discussed this approach with the IBRD, UN and War on Hunger people in Washington and has their support. Martin has also been in touch with the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations which are active in the food research field. They are particularly interested in determining where smaller applied centers for food research should be located.

Martin said that the DAC was planning an informal meeting in June on family planning. There is an April meeting on the sector approach to education. The DAC is also planning a meeting in May on private enterprise—this is a U.S. initiative.

The next area Martin plans to concentrate on is the adaption of science and technology to the less developed countries. He noted that this had been attempted before, but not through development channels in the governments of the DAC countries. He plans to use these channels, such as Sir Andrew Cohen in the U.K. Martin said he has SYG Kristensen’s support for this approach. Martin emphasized his interest in having the donor countries examine the question of proliferation of multilateral agencies for financing development. He is inclined to believe that we are overextended and he wants the DAC countries to take a hard look at the questions of organization and coordination of aid. At the same time, he also wants consideration of the staging of replenishment arrangements. He indicated his interest in continuing to develop countries up and out of the soft loan category and wants to work closely with the IBRD on this problem.

Development Center. He said that the relations between the DAC and the Development Center under Andre Philip were good and he was pleased with the cooperation and usefulness of the Development Center.

6. Proposed Cooperation with the Soviets and Eastern Europe

Ambassador Martin asked how we would react to informal cooperation between the DAC and the USSR and/or Eastern European countries. Mr. Leddy indicated that he was skeptical of the possibilities in this area, particularly on the part of the Soviet Union. Martin indicated that what he had in mind was not formal arrangements, but using the DAC as an intermediary with Soviet and/or Eastern European countries who might be interested in cooperation on development in specific countries, such as Indonesia. In this context, Mr. Leddy thought it might be worth pursuing in the framework of our East-West bridge-building exercise.

7. Coordination of Aid Strategy

Mr. Katz asked Ambassador Martin whether he planned to pursue coordination of aid strategy in the DAC. Martin said this was very much on his mind and that he considered the question of burdensharing, such as greater participation of Canada in Francophone areas in Africa, as an example of what could be done in this field. He indicated that he thought dependency on one country for development assistance, such as Latin American dependency on the U.S., was not a healthy situation and he hoped to involve countries in broadening the geographic scope of their aid programs, particularly in the technical assistance field.

1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, AID 1. Confidential. Drafted by Ruth H. Phillips (EUR/RPE).
2. President Johnson announced on November 21 that the Development Assistance Committee had elected Martin to succeed Willard Thorp as Chairman. For text of his statement, see Department of State Bulletin, December 11, 1967, pp. 808–809.