183. Letter From the Managing Director of the U.N. Special Fund (Hoffman) to the Under Secretary of State (Bowles)0

Dear Chet, In view of the uncomplimentary references made by both Senators Bridges and Capehart on the Cuban project1 I felt it was desirable to have a better understanding among some of our friends in Washington on why this project was included in our programme and [Page 405] also of its relationship to the whole of our programme. As a consequence, I spent a day in Washington and called, at their invitation, on Senators Humphreys and Aitken, on Representatives Walter Judd and John Rooney and also on Al Friendly and Roscoe Drummond. Enclosed is a copy of the memorandum which I left with them which might be of some interest to you.2

I continue to believe that the United States missed a great opportunity in not supporting this project actively because it is clearly designed to help the Cuban people and not Dr. Castro, just as our projects in Formosa are designed, not to help Chiang Kai-Shek but the people of the Republic of China and those in Korea, not for the help of the military junta presently running Korea, but the Korean people. However, that is all water over the dam. I do believe in the future an opportunity will be missed unless we do emphasize the distinction between projects designed to help people and those designed to help governments, many of which are archaic.

Best regards.

Sincerely yours,

Paul
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 398.051/6-3061. Personal.
  2. Not further identified.
  3. The 2-page memorandum and a 16-page attachment are not printed.