Editorial Note
In a nationwide radio and television address on March 6, 1952, President Truman urged continuation of the Mutual Security program for fiscal year 1953 as “essential to advance our program of world peace and to protect the security of the United States.” In order to implement the program, the President requested a Congressional allocation of $7.9 billion, $5,889 million of which would go to Europe in the form of direct military aid ($4,070 million) and defense support ($1,819 million). The text of the President’s address is in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Harry S. Truman, 1952–1953 (Washington, 1966), pages 191–196.
Both the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee began hearings on extension of the Mutual Security program on March 13. Secretary Acheson and Mutual Security Director W. Averell Harriman testified on behalf of the Administration request before the Senate committee on March 13; their statements are printed in the Department of State Bulletin, March 24, 1952, pages 463–471. Public hearings in the House lasted until April 29 and those in the Senate until April 4. The texts of the hearings are printed in House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Mutual Security Act Extension. Hearings on H.R. 7005, March 13–April 29, 1952, 82d Cong., 2d sess., and Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Hearings on Bill to Amend Mutual Security Act of 1951 and Other Purposes, March 13–April 4, 1952, 82d Cong., 2d sess. During this period, officers of the Mutual Security Administration and members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as well as General Alfred M. Gruenther, Chief of Staff, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, testified in both open and executive sessions. For General Gruenther’s statement and further testimony, along with a summary of the testimony in executive session of General Omar N. Bradley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, see volume VI.
On May 11, 1952, the House Foreign Affairs Committee reported out a $6.9 billion measure which, after floor debate and a further decrease of $726 million ($615 million of which was for economic aid for Europe) as a result of amendments proposed by Representative John Vorys (R.–Ohio), passed by a vote of 246–109 on May 23. A Senate bill, also authorizing $6.9 billion, passed May 28 by a vote of 64–10, with amendments by Senator Henry C. Dworshak (R.Idaho) barring use of funds to publicize the Mutual Security program in the United States and by Senator James P. Kem (R.–Mo.) barring all aid to countries exporting strategic goods to the Communist bloc. A Conference report, without the Kem amendments, was approved by the House, 230–115, on June 5 and by the Senate, [Page 471] 59–11, on June 9. Public Law 400, the Mutual Security Act of 1952, was signed by President Truman on June 20, 1952 (66 Stat. 141). Documentation on the provisions and regional and functional breakdown of the funds allotted in Public Law 400 is in Current Economic Developments, Issue No. 361, June 16, 1952. (Current Economic Developments, lot 70 D 467)