Foreign Relations of the United States, 1951, Asia and the Pacific, Volume VI, Part 2

460.929/12–1951

The Department of State to the Embassy of Thailand

secret

Aide-Mémoire

On October 26, 1951, the Mutual Defense Assistance Control Act of 1951 was enacted.¹ This Act establishes it as the policy of the United States to terminate all military, economic, or financial assistance to any nation that knowingly permits shipment of certain stated categories of strategic commodities to any nation or combination of nations threatening the security of the United States, including the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and all countries under its domination. Effective the same date, the Act repealed Section 1302(a) of the Third Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1951, (the so-called Kem Amendment),² and Section 117(d) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1948, as amended.

In accordance with the provisions of Title I of the Act, the Administrator³ under the Act determined on November 25 the list of items, known as Category A of Title I, which are to be considered “arms, ammunition, and implements of war and atomic energy materials” for the purposes of the Act. A copy of the list of Category A items, which has today been made available to you on a confidential basis, will be released publicly in the near future.⁴ With respect to the items included on this list, the Act makes termination of all military, economic, or financial assistance mandatory if a country after January 24, 1952 knowingly permits shipment of any of these items to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or countries under its domination.

In addition to the above-named items, the Administrator determined on November 25 a further list of items, known as Category B, which are for the purposes of Title I of the Act “petroleum, transportation materials of strategic value, and those items of primary strategic significance used in the production of arms, ammunition, and implements of war”. A copy of this list of Category B items has been made available to you in a detailed secret version and in a generalized confidential version.⁵ Consideration is being given to the question of whether or not it will be necessary later to publish either or both of these versions. The Act requires the Administrator to recommend to the President termination of assistance to any country which after January 24, 1952, knowingly permits the shipment to a Soviet bloc country of any item included on this list. Under the Act the President may direct the continuance of assistance when unusual circumstances indicate that cessation of aid would clearly be detrimental to the security of the United States. Such exceptions by the President must be reported immediately to the appropriate committees of the Congress together with the reasons why such action is necessary.

With regard to the aforementioned lists A and B, the Government of the United States notes the Government of Thailand has been certifying monthly that since June 18, 1951, it has not exported or knowingly permitted the exportation of, to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or any of its satellite countries (including Communist China, and Communist North Korea), arms, armaments, military materiel, or articles or commodities which were set forth in the list certified by the Secretary of Defense pursuant to Section 1302(a) of the Third Supplemental Appropriations Act of 1951 the shipment of which to the Soviet bloc is embargoed by the United States in the interest of national security. The certifications which this Government has received from the Government of Thailand since the passage of the Mutual Defense Assistance Control Act of 1951, but which are no longer required by that Act, indicate that the Government of Thailand is maintaining extensive controls over the export to the Soviet bloc of strategic goods, including the items appearing on lists A and B. The Government of the United States would appreciate being informed prior to January 24, 1952, and preferably as soon as possible after January 1, 1952, whether the Government of Thailand will continue to embargo the export and reexport of these items.⁶

Title II of the Mutual Defense Assistance Control Act requires the United States to negotiate arrangements by which countries receiving assistance undertake a program of controlling exports to Soviet bloc destinations of other items which, in the judgment of the Administrator, should be controlled in the interest of security. The Administrator has designated certain items under Title II which this Government believes it is particularly important to control. A list of these items has been made available to you on a secret basis. In accordance with the provisions of Title II of the Act, the Government of the United States at a future date will wish to discuss with your Government arrangements for controlling exports to the Soviet bloc of these items and of other items falling under Title II.

A list of the countries and territories which are deemed for purposes of this Act to comprise “the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and all countries under its domination” is appended hereto.⁷

The following paragraphs are excerpted from a confidential letter which has been sent by the Administrator to certain Congressional committees:

“For the sake of present and future clarity at home and abroad, I have divided my list determination under Title I of the Act into two categories. Category A specifies 21 item listings which I have determined are, for the purposes of this Act, arms, ammunition, and implements of war and atomic energy materials to be embargoed to effectuate the purposes of the Act. The statute provides that military, economic, and financial assistance to any nation shall, upon my recommendation, be terminated forthwith if such nation, after 60 days from the date of my determination under section 103(a) of the Act, knowingly permits the shipment of these items to any nation or combination of nations threatening the security of the United States, including the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and all countries under its domination.

“Category B contains 264 item listings, including petroleum items, transportation materials of strategic value, and those items of primary strategic significance used in the production of arms, ammunition and implements of war which should be embargoed to effectuate the purposes of this Act. The statute provides that United States military, economic, or financial assistance shall be terminated to any country knowingly exporting these items to the Soviet bloc unless the President, after receiving the advice of the Administrator, shall direct the continuance of such assistance when unusual circumstances indicate that the cessation of aid would clearly be detrimental to the security of the United States. The statute requires that the President, in making any exceptions, shall take into account the contribution of such country to the mutual security of the free world, the importance of such assistance to the security of the United States, the strategic importance of imports received from countries of the Soviet bloc, and the adequacy of such country’s controls over the export to the Soviet bloc of items of strategic importance.

“Section 202 of Title II of the Act provides that the United States shall negotiate with any country receiving military, economic, or financial assistance arrangements for the recipient country to undertake a program for controlling exports of items not subject to embargo under Title I, but which, in my judgment, should be controlled. Section 203 provides that all United States military, economic, or financial assistance shall be terminated to a recipient country when the President determines that such country is not effectively cooperating with the United States pursuant to Title II or is failing to furnish information sufficient for the President to determine that the recipient country is effectively cooperating with the United States. Determination C–I, made pursuant to Title II, initially includes 28 item listings which, in my judgment, particularly require the immediate application of stringent export control measures.

“As required by the statute, these lists will be adjusted by making further determinations from time to time on the basis of investigation and consultation. As experience is gained in the operation of the Act, it will undoubtedly be necessary, not only to include new items and to delete certain items from these initial lists, but particularly to refine definitions of items in order to exert the desired degree of control over the most strategic parts of an item listing.

“With respect to Determinations A–I and B–I, it is my purpose to interpret strictly the embargo provisions of the Act. Recognizing the realities of the current international trade situation, I fully anticipate, in regard to Category B, that it will be necessary to recommend to the President some exceptions, as provided by the Act, from the penalties established by Title I in order to protect the security interest of the United States. I believe, however, that the number and scope of such recommendations must be strictly limited. I intend recommending such exceptions only after all other reasonable means for limiting shipments have been exhausted and it is evident that the cessation of aid would clearly be detrimental to the security of the United States.

“With respect to the items listed under Determination C–I, the United States, Canada, and most of the Western European nations have, as you probably know, through an informal committee, already undertaken to control exports to the Soviet bloc of a list of items many times longer than the initial C–I list. However, in order to effectuate the purposes of this Act, it is my judgment that it is best initially to single out the most important items for concentrated attention. For these selected items, we will negotiate for the maximum degree of control possible and give careful consideration to additional types of security measures. With respect to other items, I will be giving continuous consideration as to how best to achieve effective controls, whether by additions to the C–I list or otherwise.”

Washington, December 19, 1951.

1. Public Law 213; the text is printed in 65 Stat. 644.
2. Documentation on the Kem Amendment is scheduled for publication in volume i.
3. W. Averell Harriman.
4. See Mutual Defense Assistance Control Act of 1951, Public Law 213, 82d Congress, First Report to Congress, by the Administrator, October 15, 1952, p. 37.
5. See ibid., p. 43.
6. On June 11, officials of the Department informed Prince Wan Waithayakon, the Thai Ambassador, of the provisions of Section 1302(a) of the Third Supplemental Appropriations Act of 1951, which was the so-called Kem Amendment. The Prince stated that he had already informed his government of the amendment’s contents and “added that he believed there would be no difficulty on the part of his government in subscribing to the objectives of the Kem Amendment in principle.” (460.929/6–1151)
7. The countries listed were: Albania, Bulgaria, People’s Republic of China (including Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, Sinkiang, and Tibet), Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Soviet Zone of Germany and the Soviet Sector of Berlin, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, North Korea, Outer Mongolia, Poland (and Danzig), Romania, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (including the Kurile Islands, South Sakhalin Island, and Tannu Tuva).