Office of the Historian

548. Memorandum From the President’s Special Assistant (Rostow) to President Johnson1

Washington, April 22, 1968.

Mr. President:

We have had a serious failure in communicating your decision on the attached PL 480 package for Afghanistan. As the note indicates, Miss Nivens telephoned, as is usual, your decision to the staff member working the area, Roger Morris, who was acting in Ed Hamilton’s [Page 1086] absence. He heard her relay of your decision as “approved” rather than “disapproved.”

He communicated the decision, as is usual, to State which notified our man in Kabul.

We discovered the mistake a few days later and flashed Kabul (Tab C)2 but it was too late to catch our Ambassador before he had (1) delivered the lecture on military spending (reporting cable at Tab D),3 and (2) delivered the news that we were ready to go ahead with the PL 480 deal (Tab E).4

Thus, due to our error, I am afraid there will be some broken crockery if we back out now.

We have two choices:

  • —The President can withdraw our offer to make this agreement on the grounds that the Symington Amendment is not being complied with:
  • —or we can accept the consequences of our error and let the PL 480 package go through.

As you can see from the cable at Tab D, our Ambassador believes that his lecture on military spending has begun a serious rethinking of the Afghan military budget. He would certainly argue that cutting off the food aid now would be self-defeating. It would also cast doubt on our $8.2 million AID program in Afghanistan, since the Symington Amendment leaves the President no leeway once he decides that aid should be terminated because a country is spending too much on defense.

To assure that this will not happen again, I have made arrangements that all decisions will be communicated twice: to the relevant member of my staff; and to the Secretariat at the Department of State.

Walt

Proceed to withdraw offer on Symington Amendment grounds

Let PL 480 deal proceed5

Call me

  1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Country File, Afghanistan, Vol. I, Memos and Miscellaneous, 12/63–4/68. Secret.↩
  2. Not printed; telegram 148514 to Kabul, April 17.↩
  3. Not printed; telegram 3775 from Kabul, March 30.↩
  4. Not printed; telegram 4072 from Kabul, April 18.↩
  5. This option is checked; Johnson added a handwritten note, “No choice.”↩