Foreign Relations of the United States, 1951, Asia and the Pacific, Volume VI, Part 1

890.00R/10–2051: Circular telegram

The Secretary of State to All Far Eastern Posts ¹

confidential

Washington, October 20, 1951—3:57 p. m.

For Ambassadors and ECA Mission Chiefs. Subject: Program Beyond FY 1952. This is a joint State/ECA cable.

Purpose this telegram is to present the agreed position of State Department and ECA as to continuation and policy guide lines of ECA programs and operations Southeast Asia and Formosa for fiscal year 1953 pursuant to provisions Mutual Security Act.²

1. At signing Mutual Security Act, President expressed over-all policy line with respect Asian programs as follows:

“The Peoples of underdeveloped areas of world want desperately take fuller advantage of their human and natural resources. We are now supplying material and technical assistance to help them realize these aspirations, and I believe we should continue to do so. I am thinking particularly of necessity supporting free nations of Asia in their efforts strengthen economic foundations of their independence.”³

2. It is the present intention of Executive Branch to submit to 1953 programs essentially similar in scope and purpose to those of fiscal Congress fiscal/year 1952. The policy guidance statements with respect to your country, contained in ISAC document 22/3b,⁴ which was transmitted to you on September 18, 1951, and the applicable provisions of the Mutual Security Act, are to be followed in completing your planning with respect to 1953.

3. With specific reference to Sections 502 and 503 of the Mutual Security Act, which deal with the question of what ECA functions shall be continued after June 30, 1952, Executive Branch agreed that it is essential in order to maintain the security and to promote the foreign policy of the United States that in general the present type and scope of economic aid programs planned for countries of Southeast Asia and Formosa should be continued beyond June 30, 1952. If it should be determined after consultation with Congress that it would be necessary to modify present legislation in any way to make it possible to carry on these programs, the Executive Branch will seek such change in legislation.

4. It is imperative that the missions not take any action with respect to either the continuing development or operations of the STEM programs, or with respect to the recipient governments, which would indicate any intention contrary to our present plan to proceed along the policy lines which have already been made available to you for carrying out STEM programs for the balance of the current fiscal year and the planning of the programs for 1953.

Acheson

1. Sent to Bangkok, Tokyo, Manila, Taipei, Saigon, Rangoon, and Djakarta.
2. The Mutual Security Act, Public Law 165, 82nd Congress (65, Stat. 373), which consolidated the administration of economic and military assistance under a new Mutual Security Agency, was signed toy President Truman on October 10, 1951. Information on the establishment of the Mutual Security Program is scheduled for publication in volume i.
3. For the full text of the President’s statement, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Harry S. Truman, 1951, pp. 563–564, or Department of State Bulletin, October 22, 1951, p. 646.
4. Document ISAC D–22/3b, “Guide Lines for Fiscal Year 1953 Foreign Aid Programs: Non-European Countries,” September 6, 1951, is not printed. Information on the subject treated by that document is scheduled for publication in volume i.