887.00 TA/7–751: Despatch
The Ambassador in Iraq ( Crocker ) to the Department of State 1
No. 23
From the referenced Despatch, it will be recalled that Iraqis generally applaud the Point IV Technical Assistance Program. The General Agreement passed the Chamber of Deputies with only seven adverse votes. (It became effective by publication in the official Gazette on June 2, 1951.)2
[Page 551]Considerable preparatory work was done prior to the conclusion of the General Agreement so that a number of Point IV projects were in advanced stages of discussion. However, most of these projects (especially leader grants and trainees projects) proved difficult to conclude with official sanction of the Iraqi Government. Thus, full advantage was not taken of the available 1951 fiscal year funds.
In reviewing the course of the discussions with the Iraqis concerning Point IV projects, it seems clear that much more should have been done on the Iraqi side to finalize these projects earlier. It is the feeling of the Embassy that the procrastination of the Iraqis can not be explained merely by inefficiency, but that some delaying tactics were employed.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
- Repeated to Damascus, Beirut, and Cairo.↩
- A summary of the negotiation of the Point Four Agreement, a comment on its status, a review of the Embassy’s experience with the program to date, and enclosed copies of several Embassy and Foreign Office notes exchanged on the agreement, are in despatch 2256, June 25, from Baghdad, in Department of State file 887.00 TA/6–2551. For the text of the Agreement for Technical Cooperation signed at Baghdad on April 10 and entered into force on June 2, see 3 UST (pt. 1) 541.↩