Foreign Relations of the United States, 1964–1968, Volume VIII, International Monetary and Trade Policy

353. Memorandum From the President’s Deputy Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Bator) to President Johnson¹

Washington, May 11, 1967, 4:45 p.m.

SUBJECT

• Procedure for Kennedy Round Wrap-up

As I understand your instructions, we will proceed as follows:

1. Except for some quiet backgrounding at Hot Springs by Rusk, Trowbridge, Solomon, et al., we will keep generally quiet until after the deadline on Sunday night. I believe all of your advisers are agreed that the risk of weakening Roth’s negotiating hand is too great for us to blanket the town with the proposition that we have a good balanced bargain.

Yes

No

Speak to me²

2. Congressional Consultation. It is the Vice President’s view that a joint meeting with the Leadership, and key people from Finance, Ways and Means, Foreign Relations, and Agriculture would involve too many people—that we need intimate meetings, not a large party. His suggestion would be that we take it in three bites:

i. A meeting with Roth’s Congressional delegates, who have a statutory mandate to follow this negotiation. If your schedule permits, we might set this up for sometime Monday. It would involve: Senators Smathers, Talmadge, Ribicoff, Williams (Del.), and Carlson, and Messrs. King and Curtis.

Yes

No

Speak to me

ii. A Leadership breakfast Tuesday morning, with Wilbur Mills added. (I suspect that Mills will be the real swing man in the House; you might want to have a telephone conversation with him first. Dirksen is likely to be the principal antagonist.)

Yes

No

Speak to me

iii. A meeting, later on Tuesday, with key people on Finance, Ways and Means, Foreign Relations, Foreign Affairs, and the two Agriculture Committees. A proposed list is at Tab A.³

Yes

No

Speak to me

The alternative would be to have a large group, throwing all these people together, at breakfast on Tuesday. A possible list is at Tab B.⁴

Yes

No

Speak to me

After your Congressional consultations, the rest of us will fan out and get to work on the Hill generally.

3. You will want to decide after the Congressional sessions, whether there should be any other White House meetings involving you (with editors, etc.). I will try to get Dillon, McCloy, Andre Mayer, Henry Ford, etc., to make the right sort of speeches in the next several weeks, and, in general, to get the right government people to call the right outsiders in the business community.

4. After the Congressional sessions, we will blanket the town and the newspapers with our story. Over the weekend, we will work out an agreed line for everyone to follow. (I have already told Sandy Trowbridge to keep away from any foolishness about $1 billion. As an economist, I will concede to no one on what these numbers do and do not mean. When the returns are in, we will work hard to put together the right sort of numerical defense in depth. But you should know, in terms of bread-and-butter economics—and quite apart from international politics—this bargain really is a good deal for the United States.)

5. I’ll ask the Vice President to help Orville organize the campaign with the agricultural community.

6. Throughout, we will have to cope with the fact that we will not fully know the precise details until close to the end of June.

7. As soon as I finish this memo, I will do a one-page talking paper for your use (gently and in round-about terms until Monday, and more aggressively thereafter).⁵

8. At Tab C is Ed Hamilton’s record of the teller vote this morning.⁶

9. Final Decision. I will be suspended on the other end of the telephone waiting for your final decision. By Friday night my feet will begin to leave the ground.

Francis

1. Source: Johnson Library, National Security File, Subject File, Trade Negotiations, Kennedy Round, “Potatoes,” [1 of 2], Box 47. Confidential. An attached undated note from Bator to the President reads: “The original of this went to you yesterday afternoon. Since you may have missed it in night reading, I attach a copy. I need your instruction on some of the items as soon as possible.”
2. None of the options in this memorandum was checked.
3. Not printed. A handwritten note with a bracket around subparagraphs i-iii in the left margin of the text reads: “Alternative I.”
4. Not printed. A handwritten note with a bracket around this paragraph reads: “Alternative II.”
5. Reference is to a memorandum from Bator to the President, May 11, 5:15 p.m. (Johnson Library, Bator Papers, Kennedy Round, May–June 1967, Box 12) On the source text, a handwritten bracketed note in the left margin next to paragraph 7 reads: “In last night’s reading.”
6. Not printed. Reference is to Hamilton’s memorandum for the record, May 11, 1:30 p.m. (Johnson Library, National Security File, Subject File, Trade Negotiations, Kennedy Round, “Potatoes” [1 of 2], Box 47)