172. Letter From the Chairman of the President’s Special Committee on Trade With East European Nations and the Soviet Union (Miller) to President Johnson1
Dear Mr. President:
After our meeting with you on April 29,2 the members of your Committee discussed how we might best carry out your instructions and be of most help to you in this matter.
There was unanimous agreement that the major conclusions of our Report will gain substantial support from the leaders of American business.
We believe that a reasonable reader of our Report will conclude that it is anything but soft. Its central point is that trade with the Communists is a matter of international politics and not profit. It urges you to use trade to drive hard, realistic political bargains with European Communist countries—bargains which would clearly be in the United States interest—and it recommends that you be given the necessary authority to do this.
We believe that if you decide to release the Report, these conclusions would come to stand out in the public debate.
On the other hand, if news of our conclusions gets about only by word of mouth, through our conversations with our business colleagues and with Members of the Congress, we are afraid that the tough central theme of the Report will be lost.
Following your instructions I have discussed with Secretary McNamara the matter of release. He indicated that he favored early release. Under Secretary Mann also favors release.
Together with three members of the Committee, I met for an hour with Senators Mansfield, Fulbright and Hickenlooper. I told them about [Page 497] the principal conclusions and recommendations and we discussed them thoroughly. Senators Mansfield and Fulbright appeared to agree with the main conclusions and recommended early release of the Report to the public.3
This morning Secretary Connor and I visited Congressman Patman, whose Banking and Currency Committee will hold hearings on the renewal of the Export Control Act. Mr. Patman also appeared to like the recommendations, and specifically recommended that the Report be released immediately after the one-day hearing, which is to take place on Wednesday, May 5. He feels that such release would be extremely helpful in the Congressional debate which would follow.
Secretary Connor agreed with Mr. Patman on a release soon after May 5.
I have seen Senator Long and given him the substance of the Report, but have been unable to arrange to see Congressman Mills. I expect to talk with him by telephone tomorrow.
I have reported the above conversations today to Under Secretary Mann.4
We are most grateful for the time which you spent with the Committee last Thursday and are anxious to be of any further useful service in this matter.
Sincerely yours,
- Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Committee File, Miller Committee, Box 25. No classification marking. A memorandum from Bator to the President, May 3, notes that Miller prepared this letter “at the suggestion of Under Secretary Mann” and that “None of the people on whom Miller called appeared to oppose release” of the report. He added that if the President decided on an early release of the report, Miller could provide the Business Council with a brief account of the contents at its May 7 meeting. (Ibid.) Regarding the actual release, see Document 173.↩
- President Johnson met with members of the Miller Committee on April 29 from 11:30 to 11:59 a.m. (Johnson Library, President’s Daily Diary) Buddy arranged with Jack Valenti for a pro forma morning meeting between the President and the Committee, “before Meany, but without decision.” (Memorandum from Buddy to President Johnson, April 28; Johnson Library, National Security File, Memos to the President, McGeorge Bundy, Vol. 10, Box 3) In preparation for this meeting with the Committee, Buddy outlined the agenda in an April 29 memorandum to President Johnson. (Ibid.) Regarding the President’s meeting with Meany the same afternoon, see footnote 2, Document 171.↩
- In an April 30 memorandum to Bator, Edward Fried noted, among other things, that Charles Engelhard had told him that “Mansfield said that Miller and the Committee members made a very favorable impression during their meeting with the three Senators on Thursday [April 29]. Mansfield is strong on a release of the Report at the earliest possible date.” Engelhard also told Fried that “Fulbright has no reservations about releasing the Report.” (Johnson Library, National Security File, Committee File, Miller Committee, Box 25)↩
- In his memorandum to Bator (see footnote 3 above), Fried also outlined in some detail a strategy involving Miller spending another day talking with key U.S. Government officials, including Connor, Patman, Mills, and Mann.↩
- Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩