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

177. Memorandum From Secretary of State Rusk to President Johnson¹

Washington, January 7, 1966.

I am attaching a memorandum prepared in the Department which strongly recommends your support for an East-West Trade Relations Bill.² Tom Mann has some reservation about the extent to which you should commit yourself to this bill as a high priority matter in the light of the present international political situation.³

My own personal view is that (a) we should continue to be in the posture of favoring an improvement in our relations between ourselves and Eastern Europe, but (b) we should not press a bill to a vote if there is any chance that it would be defeated. This obviously depends upon a very careful nose count in Committees and in the two Houses before pressing for action.

My own recommendation would be that you continue to support the idea of building bridges with Eastern Europe, including a further development of East-West trade, in your State of the Union message. This would be an important part of a comprehensive attitude toward peace as a major objective. I would recommend, however, that you stop short of throwing your full personal prestige behind the immediate enactment of legislation but rather let the rest of us work with the Committees to see what can be done despite the general atmosphere created by Viet-Nam.

This may appear to be a somewhat cautious approach. My caution, however, is not due to my attitude toward East-West trade but because of the extremely negative effect on our international relations of a vote in the Congress which would reject the kind of East-West trade legislation which we would like to have. If my own political judgment is too timid, I would be prepared to take a bolder line.

Dean Rusk ⁴

1. Source: Department of State, S/S Files: Lot 70 D 217. Confidential. Drafted by Rusk.
2. The attached memorandum from Stoessel (EUR) and Solomon (E) to Secretary Rusk, December 16, 1965, is not printed. Enclosed with it, also not printed, is an undated memorandum from Secretary Rusk to the President.
3. In a December 17, 1965, memorandum to Secretary Rusk, also attached to the source text, Mann agreed that “the President should have discretionary authority to negotiate bilateral trade agreements with the Eastern European countries.” He also warned, however, against the possibility of strong Congressional opposition to an East-West trade bill and did “not regard a one or two year postponement of a legislative fight on this issue as being more than a pause in our ‘bridge-building’ program.” He concluded that the attached undated memorandum from Secretary Rusk to the President (see footnote 2 above) seemed “to put the President somewhat on the spot. Perhaps it would be better if you were to discuss this matter orally with the President.” (Ibid.) Probably in response to Mann’s advice, the memorandum printed here appears to be a revised version of the attached undated draft.
4. Printed from a copy that indicates Rusk signed the original.