oreign Relations: Benton, Case, Gruenther, Paley, Pierson,
Pritchard, Nichols, Sarnoff, Surrey, Watson, Wheeler, and Zellerbach.

* * * * *

Heads of the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations attended the White House
luncheon when the Committee was formed. Vice President Johnson,
Secretary of State Dean Rusk, and Attorney General Robert Kennedy were
also present. The President urged each and all to get foundations,
business firms, civic organizations, and the people generally, to put
pressure on Congress in support of the 1961 foreign aid bill.

Within a week after the July 10, White House luncheon meeting (which
launched the CFR's foreign aid committee), the President and his
high-level aides were talking about a grave crisis in Berlin and about
foreign aid as _the_ essential means of "meeting" that crisis.

On July 25, when congressional debates over the foreign aid bill were in
a critical stage, President Kennedy spoke to the nation on radio and
television, solemnly warning the people that the Berlin situation was
dangerous.

Immediate, additional support for the foreign aid bill came from the
country's liberal and leftwing forces, who united in a passionate
plea--urging the American people to support the President "in this grave
hour."

* * * * *

On August 27, an Associated Press release announced that House Leader
John W. McCormack (Democrat, Massachusetts), was attempting to enlist
the cooperation of 2,400 city mayors in support of a long-range foreign
aid bill to meet the President's demands.

McCormack sent the city officials a statement of his views with a cover
letter suggesting that the matter be brought to "the attention of
citizens of your community through publication in your local newspaper,"
and, further, urging their "personal endorsement of this bipartisan
program through the medium of your local press...."

State Department officials scheduled speaking tours throughout the land,
and CFR affiliated organizations (like the Councils on World Affairs)
started the build-up to provide audiences--all in the interest of
"briefing" the American people on the necessity and beauties of foreign
aid.

Anyone with sense had to wonder how the giving of American tax money to
communist governments in Europe and to socialist governments all over
the earth could help us resist communism in Berlin. But with the top
leaders in our society (from the Pres