Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Arab-Israeli Dispute; United Arab Republic; North Africa, Volume XIII

363. Memorandum From the Acting Secretary of State to the President¹

Washington, March 4, 1960.

SUBJECT

• Determination under Section 451 (a) of the Mutual Security Act of 1954, as amended, permitting the use of funds to furnish military assistance to Morocco

The purpose of this memorandum is to recommend that you make the requisite determination under Section 451 (a) of the Mutual Security Act of 1954, as amended (hereinafter referred to as “the Act”), permitting the furnishing of military assistance to Morocco as set forth in the attached annex.²

On September 23, 1959, you determined that up to $500,000 of funds available for military assistance purposes might be used to provide grant military assistance to Morocco, without regard to certain requirements of the Act. The memorandum to you of September 22, 1959,³ proposing this assistance referred to the preliminary recommendations of a United States survey team concerning a five-year program of military assistance which would be in addition to the initial grant of up to $500,000. The military assistance program for Morocco proposed in this memorandum of $2,800,000 for fiscal year 1960 is intended to be the first-year portion of the total program recommended in the survey team’s final report.

In recommending a military assistance program of $2,800,000 for Morocco in fiscal year 1960, we are guided by essentially the same considerations outlined in the memorandum of September 22, 1959, which led to our decision to permit the acquisition of arms from the United States. The attached annex reviews these considerations, provides further details on the proposed assistance and discusses the procedure proposed for presenting the program to Morocco.

It is considered that the furnishing of the proposed assistance and the use of funds available therefor under the Act are in furtherance of the purposes of the Act and are important to the security of the United States.

It is, accordingly, recommended that you sign the attached memorandum⁴ which contains the determination required by the Act in order to carry out the first year portion of the proposed military assistance program.

The Secretary of Defense and the Director of the Bureau of the Budget concur in this recommendation.⁵

Douglas Dillon

1. Source: Eisenhower Library, White House Central Files, Confidential File. Secret.
2. Not found attached to the source text. A copy is in Department of State, Central Files, 771.5–MSP/3–460.
3. Document 358.
4. Not printed.
5. Eisenhower signed the memorandum, Presidential Determination No. 60–12, on March 11.