Editorial Note
On December 21, 1950, Secretary of State Acheson and Liberian Secretary of State Dennis signed in Washington on behalf of their respective governments a technical assistance agreement providing [Page 1735] for a cooperative undertaking aimed at a comprehensive program for the economic development of Liberia. The agreement, which was intended to carry out provisions of the Act for International Development (Title IV of the Foreign Economic Assistance Act of 1950) establishing the machinery for the Point Four Program, defined the general conditions for economic cooperation between the United States and Liberia and prepared for future specific project agreements. Secretary Acheson and Secretary Dennis also signed on December 21 a memorandum of understanding providing for a Joint United States-Liberian Commission for Economic Development to survey the economic resources of Liberia as well as to plan and advise on the technical assistance program in Liberia. For the texts of the agreement and the memorandum of understanding (which were issued by the Department of State on December 22 as Press Release No. 1254) see United States Treaties and Other International Agreements (UST), volume 2, pages 476 and 478. For a lengthy statement issued to the press by the Department of State on December 21 describing the signing ceremony at the Department of State and reviewing in some detail aspects of the program to be undertaken, see the Department of State Bulletin, January 1, 1951, pages 27–28. Documentation on the negotiation of these agreements, which were carried out during October, November, and December between American officials and the Liberian Commission, is included in Department of State file 876.00 TA.