CONGRESSIONAL RECORD --SENATE

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CIA-RDP64B00346R000200140040-5
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2
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December 15, 2016
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March 22, 2004
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40
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MISC
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Approved For Release 2004/03/31 : CIA-RDP64B00346R000200140040-5 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - SENATE dollar-be utterly self-defeating. All of us here are determined to follow the, only other feasible course-not the unacceptable course of restriction and isolation or deflation, but the course of true cooperation-of liberal payments and trade, of sharing the cost of our NATO and Pacific defenses, of sharing the cost of the free world's development aid, and of working together on steps to greater international stability, with other currencies in addition to the dollar bearing an increas- ing share of its central responsibilities. We in the United States recognize that our own obligation in this regard includes, as a matter of first priority, taking action to eliminate the deficit in our balance of payments, and to do so without resorting to deflation or retreating to isolation. I have spoken frankly at this meeting be- cause these two successful institutions, the bank and the fund, have long flourished in a spirit of candor, and have consistently shown a reliable capacity to respond both flexibly and effectively to new needs and new challenges. This spirit of cooperation and candor and initiative will., I know,` continue in the future. For only in this spirit can we hope to maintain a sturdy free-world finan- cial system, with stable exchange rates, capa- ble of supporting a growing flow of trade and foreign investment, free from discrimina- tions and restrictions. I HAVE SPOKEN FRANKLY I have spoken frankly, moreover, because I believe the currenj strength of the dollar enables us to speak frankly and with con- fidence. Some sharing of responsibilities has already been achieved. Considerable progress in the balance of our international accounts has been made. A new agreement among 10 industrialized countries to supplement the resources of the Fund, with special borrowing arrange- ments of up to $6 billion, has been con- eluded, and implementing action will be completed by the U.S. Congress within the next few days or weeks. Less formal arrangements between the major trading countries have also been evolved to cope with any potential strains or shocks that might arise from a sudden movement of capital. These arrangements, I should add, contain within themselves the possibility of wider and more general application-and this country will always be receptive to suggestions for expanding these arrangements or otherwise improving the operation and efficiency of the international payments system. . All of this is ground for confidence, for making it increasingly clear that no extreme or restrictive measures are needed, that spec- ulation against the dollar is losing its allure and that the economy of the United States can continue to expand in a framework based on the maintenance of free exchange and the early achievement of equilibrium. The expansion in our domestic economy, while not all that we had hoped, has been substantial-and, of equal importance, it has been accompanied by price stability. Whole- sale prices for industrial goods are actually lower today than they were during the re- cession months of 1961. Nevertheless, I do not underestimate the continuing challenge. which faces us all to- gether. The very success of our efforts-the very prosperity of those who have pros- pered-imposes upon us special obligations and special burdens. Centuries ago the es- sayist, Burton referred with scorn to those who were "possessed by their money" rather than possessors of it. We who are meeting here today do not intend to be mastered by our money or by our monetary problems. We intend to master them, with unity and generosity-and we shall do so in the name of freedom. [From the New York Times, Sept. 21, 19621 T.KE BATTLE FOR FOREIGN AID President Kennedy has properly declared that it makes no sense at all for Congress- men to oppose communism with oratory and then to approve crippling cuts in the foreign aid program, which is a central weapon in the fight to preserve freedom. But last night the House of Representatives ignored the President's good advice and approved the completely inadequate foreign aid funds recommended by its Appropriations Commit- tee. Today Moscow is rejoicing; and we can only loop to the Senate to prevent the dam- age which would result if this irresponsible action of! the House were to be confirmed. The chief argument advanced against the foreign aid program is usually some variant of the idea that we cannot afford it. The President's request for $4,752 million is, how- ever, less than 1 percent of the country's total annual production. This is true even now whet we have substantial unemployed human and material resources. The United States is' spending more than 10 times as much money for military strength, and there has been congressional pressurefor spending even more in this area than the administra- tion believes is wise. President Kennedy pointed out last week that this year's space budget is $5,400 million, almost a billion dollars more than he asked for foreign aid. But neither nuclear weapons nor space- ships affect the poverty which is the chief source of world instability and the chief breeding' ground of communism. It is in- comprehensible that this Nation can afford what it f: spending for arms and for space research purposes and cannot afford the modest foreign aid request. In respect to the alleged drain of the foreign aid program on our balance of payments, the fact is that almost 8Q percent of economic aid funds are spent in this country. The great outflow of American} tourists abroad each year is a far larger burden on the U.S. balance-of-pay- ments position than is foreign aid. The United States alone cannot meet the entire problem posed by the underdeveloped nations, nor should it. Bilateral aid is actually in many ways less desirable than multilateral aid, and certainly the newly prosperous nations of Western Europe and Japan can and should contribute more to meeting the need. But a drastic reduction in our contributions to this purpose is not the way' to persuade these nations to be more generous on their own account. The President's statement on the cuts by the Houae Appropriations Committee was so much to',the point that we reproduce it here: "The drastic cut in foreign aid funds rec- ommended by the House Appropriations Committee poses a threat to free world security. It makes no sense at all to make speeches against the spread of Communism, to de- plore instability in Latin America and Asia, to call fo:r an Increase in American prestige and an initiative in Eastern Europe-and then vote to cut back the Alliance for Prog- ress, to hamper the Peace Corps, to.cut off surplus food shipments to hungry Poles, to repudiate our long-term commitments of last year and to undermine the efforts of those who are seeking to stave off chaos and Corri]nunism in the 'most vital areas of the world. Foreign aid has increasingly meant trade, sales and jobs in this country, and reform, progress and new hope in the developing countries. "The skid program Is just as important as any military spending we do abroad. You cannot separate guns from roads and schools when it comes to resisting Communist sub- version in underdeveloped countries. This is a lesson we have learned clearly in South Vietnam and elsewhere in southeast Asia. To mutilate the aid program in this massive fashion would be to damage the national security of the United States. "I cannot believe that those in both parties who have consistently voted in the course of three Administrations to fulfill this na- tion's obligations of leadership will permit this irresponsible action to go uncorrected." PERSON-TO-PERSON FOREIGN AID Mrs. NEU13ERGER. Mr. President, I was interested in the remarks made by the Senator from. Minnesota with respect to the foreign aid program, which the Congress is considering. It is apropos at this time that I comment on a letter I received recently, because it shows a form of foreign aid in which many of us can participate, not in the realm of bil- lions of dollars. A young :man named Jay Jacobson, formerly on my office staff, became in- terested in working for the Government of Nyasaland. He and his wife Pat re- cently went to that emerging country, where Mr. Jacobson is helping to write a constitution. He and Pat saw the need for a real person-to-person aid for the people of Nyasaland, and, as an extra- curricular activity, they have been teaching Mighsh to any who wanted to learn and were interested. Be :wrote me in desperation and said, "We have no teaching material. We have no books." My office got busy. We went to the Library of Congress and got some of the books which that institution gives out every so often. We gathered books up from here and there, from near and far, and those books finally have arrived in Nyasaland. I think it is of interest to all of us who are concerned about our brothers and sisters in other countries to read some remarks from this remarkable letter, as to what a little bit of foreign aid did in Nyasaland. You could have pushed me over with the well-known feather when the messenger from the American consulate in Blantyre strolled through my door in Zomba on Fri- day with the package of books that you sent on the 5th of July. Other than the fact that it appears that diplomatic pooch crosses the Atlantic in much the same manner as Fran- cis Chichester, the books were a splenldld surprise. I took them down to the school that evening, and the students were ecstatic. Many of them had never seen a hard-cover book 'before, and the Agricultural Yearbooks that you and Walt must have :found up in the attic were a particular curiosity and delight. I add that when they were putting these old yearbooks in the packet I de- murred somewhat, but this statement shows how desperate the people of Nyasaland were for reading material. The school was disrupted for about half an hour while all the students came to see the books. They couldn't believe that the books were for there and I must have told them a dozen times that these were gifts from friends in the United States. Then, as they crowded around. and flipped the pages of the books and pamphlets and maps, I was cross- examined on the contents and the meaning of many words that they didn't understand. Is Oregon like Nyasaland? Can people really read books like this whenever they want to in the United States? Approved For Release 2004/03/31 : CIA-RDP64B00346R000200140040-5