Office of the Historian

63. Memorandum From the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs (Brzezinski)1

Washington, October 24, 1979

MEMORANDUM FOR

  • The Secretary of State
  • The Secretary of Agriculture
  • The Director, Office of Management and Budget
  • The Director, International Development Cooperation Administration
  • The Administrator, Agency for International Development

SUBJECT

  • Kampuchean Emergency Relief

The President has decided to increase direct U.S. Government contributions to Kampuchean emergency relief to $39 million and to ask U.S. private relief organizations to increase their efforts to avert starvation in Kampuchea. In response to the UNICEF-ICRC appeal for $111 [Page 216] million covering the first six months of Kampuchean emergency relief, the President plans to announce on Wednesday these measures:2

—transfer of $3 million of Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance funds, in equal amounts, to UNICEF and the ICRC;3

—provision for $20 million earmarked for Kampuchean food aid in the pending PL480 supplemental budget request (reducing the Title I portion of this request accordingly);4

—grant of $9 million of Refugee and Migration Assistance funds to the Government of Thailand to assist it in carrying out a $28 million program for destitute Kampuchean refugees in that country;

—support for legislation sponsored by Chairman Zablocki and others of the House Foreign Relations Committee to establish stand-by authority to permit quick appropriation of additional funds for Kampuchean relief as and when required later in this fiscal year.

These measures are in addition to $7 million previously provided for this purpose.

The revised PL480 supplemental budget request will be transmitted to the Congress by OMB immediately after the House-Senate conference on the agriculture appropriation has been completed.

Prior to enactment of the supplemental, urgent Kampuchean food aid requirements beyond the initial $5 million grant and within the new ceiling of $25 million should be drawn from uncommitted funds in Title II accounts.5

Zbigniew Brzezinski
  1. Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Country File, Box 42, Kampuchea, 1/77–10/79. No classification marking. Poats sent a copy of the memorandum to Brzezinski under an October 23 covering memorandum and requested that Brzezinski sign it. (Ibid.)↩
  2. For the text of the October 24 statement, see Public Papers: Carter, 1979, Book II, pp. 2011–2012.↩
  3. Presidential Determination No. 80–4, October 24, directed the transfer. (3 CFR, 1979 Comp., p. 495) For Carter’s October 24 statement on the additional relief efforts for Cambodian refugees, see Public Papers: Carter, 1979, Book II, pp. 2011–2012. Carter subsequently issued Presidential Determination No. 80–5, November 13, which directed that an additional $2 million be made available from the Emergency Migration and Refugee Assistance Fund for transfer to UNICEF for the relief program in Kampuchea. See Public Papers: Carter, 1979, Book II, p. 2117.↩
  4. Title I addresses trade and development assistance.↩
  5. Title II addresses emergency and private assistance.↩