800.24/9–2948
The Acting Secretary of State to the Director of the Bureau of the Budget (Webb)
My Dear Mr. Webb: This refers to your letter of August 10, 1948,1 in which you stated that the Bureau of the Budget is prepared to consider requests for care and handling allocations, supported by the necessary justifications, for the Iranian program.
Your letter also referred to the general problem of treatment of foreign military assistance programs, particularly in connection with the basic factor of availabilities in the light of our own expanded military program, and enclosed a copy of your letter of the same date to the Secretary of Defense,1 which noted the question of priorities as between foreign nations and as between our own and foreign requirements, recognizing that strategic and foreign policy considerations are involved, and suggested several type questions pertinent to an examination of the subject of availabilities.
I am in complete agreement that the solution of foreign military assistance problems should be undertaken from the overall viewpoint, with the connotations emphasized in your letter. The necessity for balancing availabilities with strategic and national policy considerations has guided the formulation of Department of State policies in these matters, and has been stressed in discussions with the Departments of the National Military Establishment concerning projects for military aid abroad.
A SANACC study concerning priorities for military aid2 has been completed and is now in the hands of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to whom it was referred for comment from a military point of view prior to SANACC action. The following excerpt from the Conclusions of this paper is pertinent to the questions raised in your letter:
“The needs of the National Military Establishment should be accorded continuing highest priority. Therefore, an essential step in reaching decisions as to projected military aid for any country should be an evaluation by the Joint Chiefs of Staff of that project with reference to materiel requirements and operations of the National Military Establishment.”
This study, developed over a period of months by representatives of the Department of State and the Service Departments reaches definite conclusions as to priorities for United States military assistance to foreign countries.
You are doubtless aware of other policy documents concerned with military assistance problems. I may cite SANACC 360/53 which deals with the question of continuing support of military aid programs (the maintenance and furnishing of replacement items), and has been approved for appropriate implementation by the Department of State and the Departments of the National Military Establishment. Para. 4 c of the Conclusions of this paper is quoted:
“The size and cost (present and continued) of a military assistance program should be carefully studied in relation to its economic feasibility to avoid an unremunerative dissipation of U. S. resources, excessive foreign commitments or contributing to an undue burden upon a friendly nation.” (Emphasis added)
SANACC 382/64 is likewise in point. It establishes policy criteria in cases of transfer of military supplies abroad when in the interest of the United States, and refers to the factors of availability and the effect of such transfers on our economy.
The Department of State is guided in these problems by the controlling statement of policy in the report of the National Security Council, NSC 14/1,5 approved by the President July 10, 1948. This study lays down covering considerations to safeguard the minimum materiel requirements of the United States services as determined by the Joint Chiefs, and embodies an important general priority statement which, so far as I am aware, is the only overall military assistance priority directive yet considered and approved by the President.
The paper includes a recommendation for essential legislation to broaden the executive authority with respect to providing military assistance to foreign nations.
It is noted that, in addition, certain current National Security Council studies and reports, approved by the President, concern the military assistance problems of specific foreign areas or nations (e.g. NSC 8,6 NSC 287, NSC 318). In connection with the implementation of NSC 8, very thorough study of the strategic requirements of the National Military Establishment in the theatre concerned is being made. NSC 28/1, [Page 636] while approving the present furnishing of small amounts of equipment to Norway or Denmark, requires that further provision of military assistance in the Scandinavian area be contingent upon participation in regional agreements as contemplated in the Vandenberg resolution, as well as consistent with availabilities and subject to the priorities established by NSC 14/1. NSC 31 is in effect an implementation of para. 13 of NSC 14/1.
Your letter notes the importance of availability studies. It has been brought to my attention that under Army directives of last April and May (letter AGO, Subject: Disposition of Excess Supplies and Return of Supplies to the Zone of Interior, dated 22 April 1948, and letter, Chief of Ordnance, Subject: Ordnance Items Required in the Zone of the Interior, dated 7 May 1948) effective measures have been taken to secure up-to-date data on the location and availabilities of Army ordnance stocks. I am informed that these directives were issued with a view to auditing and supplying our own needs and to determining, in some measure at least, availabilities for foreign requirements.
In June, 1948, a regular procedure was established in this Department covering policy determination in cases of foreign military assistance proposals, and providing for coordination with the services in the implementation of approved projects. The views of the services were and are invariably secured and thoroughly considered with reference to policy advisability in each instance.
The concerned offices of this Department and of the National Military Establishment are now studying the procedural requirements involved, in the light of experience with military assistance proposals to date, and appear to be in general preliminary agreement, both as to policy factors and as to implementation of approved projects by an inter-departmental executive group.
Sincerely yours,
- Not printed.↩
- Not printed.↩
- Reference is to SANACC 360/11, approved by the State–Army–Navy–Air Force Coordinating Committee on March 15, 1949, as amended.↩
- July 26, p. 597.↩
- June 18, p. 577.↩
- July 1, p. 585.↩
- For text of NSC 8, The Position of the U.S. with Respect to Korea, April 2, 1948, see vol. vi, p. 1163.↩
- NSC 28, The Position of the U.S. with Respect to Scandinavia, August 26, 1948, is not printed; for the conclusions of NSC 28/1, September 3 (NSC 28 as amended), see vol. iii, p. 232.↩
- For text of NSC 31, Equipment for Three French Divisions, September 14, 1948, see ibid., p. 648.↩