Foreign Relations of the United States, 1949, Western Europe, Volume IV

840.20/1–2649

Memorandum by the Legal Adviser and Coordinator for Foreign Assistance Programs (Gross) to the Secretary of State ¹

[Washington,] January 26, 1949.

Subject: Coordination of Atlantic Pact and Military Assistance Programs.

1. On January 3 I was asked by Mr. Lovett to coordinate the Department’s responsibilities in connection with the development of military assistance programs. Because the Department was months behind in this work and because there is no standing coordinating mechanism at the requisite level in the Department, I reluctantly agreed to do this. For the past few weeks I have been getting people together who should have been getting together for months prior to that time. I have had the fullest cooperation from everyone concerned. A certain group effort has resulted and the development of the military assistance programs and underlying policies are fairly well off the ground. Generally speaking, it will be possible (and work is actually in process) to prepare logistical tables of items for transfer to other countries, to estimate the dollar values and to prepare a rough, if arbitrary, estimate of the amount of money which we should ask Congress to authorize and appropriate.

2. In addition to presenting to Congress the general supply requirements and related programming information, it will, of course, be necessary to explain the relationship between the military programs, the Atlantic Pact and the E.R.P. Accordingly, it remains essential to coordinate the work on the E.R.P. and the Atlantic Pact with the work on the military programs. As an example, Article 3 of the Pact contains an undertaking by the parties to use every endeavor “by means of continuous and effective self-help and mutual aid” to strengthen themselves against aggression. Neither in the formulation of the Article nor its discussion with the representatives of other countries has the Article been given any substance, content or meaning. Article 8 of the Pact contemplates the establishment of a Council to deal with matters concerning the implementation of the treaty. I do not know whether any thought has been given, or whether any discussion has taken place with other countries, concerning the extent or method by which Article 3 is to be “implemented”, if at all. But the answers to this question directly affect work on the military programs.

My impression is that the thinking about the Atlantic Pact in the Department has viewed military assistance primarily in terms of what we will transfer to other countries and has in general considered that certain types of reciprocal assistance (for example, base rights) would be handled in some other way. As an illustration, Secretary Forrestal has been advised, without reference to the Departmental work being done on military assistance, programs, that it would be our policy to favor collective base rights, rather than exclusive U.S. base rights, so far as Atlantic Pact countries are concerned. Question at once arises whether this will be accomplished through the Council to be set up under the Pact, through negotiations connected with provision of military assistance, or through the Brussels Pact mechanisms.

3. In the course of work on military assistance programs, many of us have been able, on a fragmentary basis, to perceive problems of this sort involving relationship between the Pact, E.R.P and the military assistance programs. I am confident that others undoubtedly exist. I think that someone who is in the constant and current policy stream of the Department should as soon as possible be charged with the responsibility for overall coordination, which cannot be carried out through an isolated and jerry-built coordinating mechanism.

4. I urge strongly that my own operation be liquidated as promptly as possible and that I be returned to my regular duties in the Department. I should think two weeks more should be enough and that the responsibility for achieving real coordination of the Atlantic Pact. Military Assistance and E.R.P. should be assumed by a Deputy Under Secretary, with the day-to-day work being performed on a staff basis by persons with clarified official duties. Unless this is done I fear there will be an illusion that effective coordination is being accomplished, with the result that the E.R.P., Atlantic Pact and military assistance programs will not be properly related and fully understood as component parts of our foreign policy, and will not properly be presented to Congress in true relationship.

Ernest A. Gross

1. Copies of this memorandum were sent to Under Secretary of State James E. Webb, Charles Bohlen, John Hickerson, Coordinator for Foreign Aid and Assistance Henry R. Labouisse, Jr., Paul Nitze, and Assistant Secretary of State John E. Peurifoy.