Office of the Historian

Secretary’s Memoranda, Lot 53 D 444

Memorandum of Conversation, by Mr. Lucius D. Battle, Special Assistant to the Secretary of State

confidential
[Washington,] July 24, 1951.

Senator John Sherman Cooper1 called me today and discussed the forthcoming Senate hearings on the Foreign Aid Bill. He said that he had talked to several of the Senators who had returned from Europe recently. He wanted to pass on what he had learned from them as possible help to us in the hearings.

Senator Cooper said he was more hopeful after talking to them and seemed to think the trip had been useful. He then went on to mention several points which he thought we should be prepared on, which might come up in the hearings. These points are as follows:

1.
The Senators will want to know the basis by which amounts required are decided on. He said that the Senators had tried to find out at General Eisenhower’s headquarters and were told there that the figures had been sent here. He said they would ask who determined the amount needed, why, when, et cetera.
2.
Some of the Senators are concerned because appropriations for fiscal ‘50 and fiscal ‘51 have not actually been used. Senator Cooper said that he knew that contracts might have been let for the use of these funds but he said that some of the Senators could not understand why we needed additional appropriations when we had not used the appropriations for the two preceding years.
3.
The Senator mentioned that some of the Senators are inclined to spread the appropriation over a period of two years. He said that their thought was that if more money was required, we could go up for a supplemental appropriation. The Senator thought we should be ready to answer this line of argument.
4.
The Senator mentioned the problem of organization. He said there was considerable interest in this and said we could expect questions on it.

In connection with “4” above, Senator Cooper said that he was impressed with the arguments of Mr. Rockefeller in his recent testimony.

I thanked Senator Cooper profusely for the information.

L[ucius] D. B[attle]
  1. Consultant to the Secretary of State: a United States Senator from Kentucky, 1946–1948.↩