164. Memorandum for the Record1
I received word this morning from the Secretariat of the SIG that Rusk, McNamara and Gaud met several days ago on the Tunisia Military Assistance Program and decided to scrap the July 23rd memo for the President which Secretary Rusk had sent to us.2 We had been holding that memo since its arrival to let the Presidential Determination papers catch up with it so we would only have to take this issue to the President once.
The Secretaries decided that it would be too damaging to the AID program in Congress to try for a five-year commitment to Tunisia. They agreed to go ahead as planned for FY 67 but feel we can make no commitment thereafter.
Ambassador Palmer’s Bureau is now drafting a paper reflecting this new position.
The main problem is that the Tunisians are already aware of the existence of the military survey team’s report. The debate now will be over how to tell them that we are only willing to sign up for one year. One solution is to tell them forthrightly about our problems, tell them that we are willing to start on a program but admit that unfortunately we can not be sure what the future will bring.
I have told State and AID to be sure that the Presidential Determination papers this time come over with the Secretary’s memo.
I am returning Secretary Rusk’s original memo to Bromley Smith, presumably for the dead letter file.
- Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Tunisia, Vol. I, Memos & Miscellaneous, 12/63–9/68. Secret. Prepared by Saunders. Copies were sent to Bromley Smith and James Clark.↩
- Document 163.↩