Editorial Note
Following preliminary hearings in the House of Representatives in March 1953 on extension of the Mutual Security program, President Eisenhower on May 5 recommended to Congress the passage of legislation extending the program. The basic purpose of the program was characterized by the President as “simply the long-term security of the United States living in the shadow of the Soviet threat.” The President requested approximately $5,250 million for military weapons and support to aid the defense efforts of friends and allies, and approximately $550 million for technical, economic, and developmental purposes. The total request represented a reduction of approximately $1.8 billion from the Truman Administration’s [Page 626] projected mutual security budget. For the text of the President’s message, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953, pages 256–259.
Both Secretary Dulles and Mutual Security Director Harold Stassen testified before a joint session of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee on May 5. During the course of his remarks, the Secretary stated that “A main objective of the program is to get the most security for the least cost”. He also observed that a large part of the total amount was being requested for defense of the European area within the framework of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and that the most careful planning had gone into the formulation of the request. “There is no ‘water’ in this program to be squeezed out without taking greater risks than we believe are acceptable at the present time”, he stated in connection with the European portion of the proposed program.
Stassen, in his testimony, stated that the program before the two Committees “represents the product of months of work by the National Security Council where each of our security objectives was carefully studied and its importance weighed in relation to the fiscal considerations” that so greatly concerned Secretary of the Treasury George Humphrey. The testimony of Secretary Dulles and Mutual Security Director Stassen is printed in the Department of State Bulletin, May 25, 1953, pages 736–742.
Senate hearings on the Mutual Security bill took place in the latter half of May. Those hearings are printed in U.S. Senate, Hearings on a bill to amend the Mutual Security Act of 1951, May 15–29, 1953, 83d Cong., 1st sess. The earlier House hearings are printed in U.S. House of Representatives, Hearings … Mutual Security Act Extension, March 1953, 83d Cong., 1st sess.
On May 27, President Eisenhower reduced his initial request by $354 million. On June 16, the House Foreign Affairs Committee reported H.R. 5710 authorizing $5 billion. Subsequently, the full House passed the bill after rejecting all amendments proposing further reductions but agreeing to an amendment by Representative Fulton (R.–Pa.) requiring disposal of surplus agricultural commodities wherever possible. The Senate version of the Mutual Security bill, approved on July 1, authorized a grant of $5.3 billion. A conference report fixing the final Mutual Security appropriation was approved July 13 by both Houses.