Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950, National Security Affairs; Foreign Economic Policy, Volume I

Editorial Note

In the light of massive Chinese Communist intervention in Korea, November 25–27, 1950, President Truman requested on December 1 an additional appropriation of $16.8 billion for the Department of Defense and a supplemental appropriation of $1,050,000,000 for the United States Atomic Energy Commission. For the text of the President’s Special Message to Congress, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Harry S. Truman, 1950, pages 728–731.

Hearings on the President’s request were conducted by subcommittees of the House Appropriations Committee between December 1 and December 14. On December 1, Secretary of Defense Marshall, Deputy Secretary Lovett, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff testified before the Special Subcommittee on National Defense Appropriations. General Omar N. Bradley, Chairman of the JCS, presented an extensive statement off the record. For the open portion of these proceedings, see Second Supplemental Appropriations Bill for 1951: Hearings Before Subcommittees of the Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives (81st Cong., 2nd sess.).

Between December 9 and 19, the Senate Committee on Appropriations also held hearings on the request for additional funds. Marshall, Lovett, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff again testified; see Second Supplemental Appropriations Bill, 1951: Hearings Before the Committee on Appropriations, United States Senate (81st Cong., 2nd sess.).

Following its Christmas recess, Congress approved the funds requested. President Truman signed the Second Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1951, on January 6, 1951 (64 Stat. 1223).