Letter to Eric Johnston Requesting Him To Serve as Chairman of the International Development Advisory Board.

[ Released January 23, 1952. Dated January 15, 1952 ]

My dear Eric:

In addressing the Congress this month on the Point 4 Program of technical cooperation in underdeveloped areas, I expressed my conviction that there is nothing of greater importance in all of our foreign policy. There is no work that shows more clearly what we stand for, and what we want to achieve.

I should like you to join with me in carrying this work forward.

When I reluctantly accepted your resignation as Administrator of the Economic Stabilization Agency, you wrote me of your intention to continue as a private citizen to work for a national policy which will promote our security and survival. As a private citizen you can perform an inestimable service to the free world by accepting the chairmanship of the International Development Advisory Board.

The Board was created in accordance with the mandate of the Act for International Development to advise and consult with me on the planning and operation of the Point 4 Program. The present members of the Board are men and women outstanding in their public service and outstanding in their respective fields of business, labor, agriculture, public health, and education.

I am confident that under your leadership the Board will achieve continued success by bringing wide knowledge, varied experience, and intense interest to bear upon the administration of the Program. I am asking you to accept this new responsibility because you have demonstrated in your governmental and private undertakings the capacity to call forth both cooperation and endeavor from your co-workers. I hope that the duties to which you have so recently returned with the Motion Picture Association will permit you to assist me once again.

Always sincerely,

HARRY S. TRUMAN

[Honorable Eric A. Johnston, President, Motion Picture Association of America, Inc., 1600 Eye Street, N.W., Washington 6, D.C.]