Office of the Historian

Editorial Note

A restructuring of Executive Branch organization for the preparation of foreign aid programs occurred during March 1951. Department of State Departmental Announcement 56 of March 16, 1951, reads in part as follows:

  • “Effective immediately, Colonel Charles H. Bonesteel is temporarily designated as a Special Assistant to the Secretary to assist in preparing the Foreign Aid Program for presentation to the Congress. Colonel Bonesteel will give full-time central direction and coordination within the Department to the final phases of the preparation of the Aid Program. In this capacity he will work with the Chairman of the Foreign Aid Steering Group, the Chairman of the Committee on International Security Affairs, and with appropriate officials of the Department and of other agencies.”

Bonesteel, Executive Director of the European Coordinating Committee in London, the regional coordinating body for the Mutual Defense Assistance Program, returned to that position upon completion of the foreign aid presentation assignment.

As Special Assistant to the Secretary of State, Bonesteel served as the Department of State representative on a new Executive Group on Foreign Aid. Other members were Colonel George A. Lincoln, Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense; and C. Tyler Wood, Deputy United States Representative in Europe of the Economic Cooperation Administration. The Executive Group, with offices in the State Department, [Page 287] became the primary full-time group with responsibility for the preparation of foreign aid programs and Congressional presentation.

The members of the new Executive Group attended meetings of the Foreign Aid Steering Group on March 22 and April 11. Thereafter, the Steering Group ceased to meet, its Task Forces having largely completed preparation of the Fiscal Year 1952 foreign aid programs. The Executive Group, meanwhile, met nine times between March 28 and May 4, concerning itself with unresolved questions relating to the programs and to matters of Congressional presentation. The records of the Executive Group are located in FRC Acc. No. 62A613, Box 124.