46 



I'm not quite sure about this, but it may very well be 

 that during the Eisenhower Administration we had given 

 military assistance to Pakistan on the theory that they were 

 in the front line against the Soviet Union. 



John Kenneth Galbraith advised Kennedy strongly not to 

 give military assistance to Pakistan, or to give the minimum 

 amount, because he said what those guys are really looking 

 for is to fight India, not to fight Russia at all, that they 

 would use these armaments to fight India. 



At that time the Pakistanis were pretty cocky. They 

 thought that they were such superior soldiers to the 

 Indians, that even though they were a very much smaller 

 country they could defeat the Indians in a real battle, in a 

 real war. They have subsequently learned that that is 

 difficult, essentially impossible. The Indians are so much 

 more of a country than Pakistan. 



So when Ayub Khan came to Washington he actually made 

 a speech before Congress. It was very well received in 

 Congress, but Kennedy said that he would not give him arms, 

 but he said, "We would be glad to help you out in any other 

 way. " 



Abdus Salam, the Pakistani then-retired physicist who 

 later won the Nobel Prize, who as on the faculty of the 

 University of London, and Jerry Wiesner had talked together 

 either before this visit or after. I think they must have 

 done it before the visit, in preparation for the visit. 

 Jerry Wiesner was President Kennedy's science advisor. 



They had talked about the problem of waterlogging and 

 salinity in West Pakistan as a serious problem. Jerry felt 

 that this was something that maybe the Americans could help 

 with a solution to. 



So when President Kennedy turned down Ayub Khan's 

 request for arms but said we'd be glad to help out in any 

 other way that we can, just name a problem, Abdus Salam had 

 told Ayub Khan that in fact the Americans would be very 

 happy to help out with the waterlogging and salinity 

 problem. So Ayub Khan said, "Well, we do have this problem. 

 Our agricultural lands in West Pakistan are being destroyed 

 by an accumulation of salt in the soil and the water table 

 rising to the surface." 



"Waterlogging and Salinity" 



Revelle: "Waterlogging and salinity" they called it. Which happens 



to all irrigated lands where you don't have proper drainage. 

 It's a universal consequence of irrigation without proper 

 drainage. And Kennedy said, "Well, that's just the kind of 

 problem my science advisor can solve." [laughing] 



Jerry Wiesner had a staff, two people whom I knew 

 particularly well. Gene Skolnikoff and Bob Kriedler 

 Skolnikoff is now a professor of political science at MIT, 

 and Bob Kriedler runs his own foundation. He was vice 



