61. Letter From the Ambassador to Italy (Luce) to the President’s Special Assistant for National Security Affairs (Cutler)2
Dear General: You are aware of my firmly held opinion that we are at a decisive juncture in Italian affairs, one which holds out promise of much progress against the Communists if we and the Italian Government can exploit the successes achieved during the last year. The turmoil within the Communist Party over Togliatti’s leadership is adequate proof that the Italian Government’s anti-communist actions and the progress of free labor are hurting the party badly.
I believe with the President that this is a situation where we should, as he puts it, “support success.”
What I believe to be required is the following:
- 1.
- Full and rapid implementation by the Italian Government of its sweeping December 4 anti-communist program;3
- 2.
- Willingness and preparation on our part to give serious consideration to assisting the Italians with the economic development program they are presently working out, provided that during the next two or three months they make a good start in implementing the December 4 program. This U.S. assistance is an essential concomitant to Italy’s ability to carry out even more vigorous anti-communist measures. To this end, we should endeavor to scrape together from various sources a “package” of assistance of various kinds which we might agree to extend (subject to negotiations) either on the occasion of the Scelba visit4 or whenever we considered it appropriate thereafter. In my view such a package would consist principally of Eximbank loans, PL 480,5OSP and possibly other forms of aid. (I am, incidentally, seriously concerned that the FOA contingency fund be cut drastically by the Administration or in Congress.) This aid package would not be extended however until we were fully satisfied both with the validity of the economic program the Italians had worked out, and with the adequacy of the Italians’ own efforts in this field.
As you are aware the time element is important if we are to exploit success. If we can move ahead on the above basis, however, I am convinced that there is real hope of achieving in the next few years a truly significant, perhaps even a definitive victory against the Communist Party in Italy.
Sincerely yours,6
-
Source: Eisenhower Library, Clarence Francis Records. Top Secret. Ambassador Luce was in Washington for consultations.
At a meeting of the Operations Coordinating Board on January 12, Cutler had asked for guidance with regard to an impending dinner engagement with Luce. Under Secretary Hoover, Department of State Representative and Chairman of the OCB, replied that he believed Luce wished to discuss a plan for assistance to Italy, but that he had informed Luce that such a suggestion would require study and more money than he believed would be available. [3½ lines of text not declassified] (Department of State, OCB Files: Lot 61 D 385, OCB Preliminary Notes)
↩ - For excerpts from the Council of Ministers’ communiqué announcing the program, see Document 67. The complete text of the communiqué was sent to the Department of State in telegram 2141 from Rome, December 6, 1954. (Department of State, Central Files, 765.00/12–654)↩
- Prime Minister Scelba was scheduled to visit the United States in March.↩
- Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954 (Public Law 480), approved July 10, 1954; for text, see 68 Stat. 454.↩
- Cutler replied to Luce’s letter on January 18, assuring her that the points she had raised would be brought before the NSC Planning Board. (Eisenhower Library, Clarence Francis Records)↩
- Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩