Office of the Historian

Secretary’s Staff Meetings, lot 63 D 75

Notes of the Secretary of State’s Staff Meeting, Held at the Department of State, 9:15 a.m., September 29, 1953

secret
SM N–168
September 29, 1953, 9:15 a.m.

[Here follow a list of those present (27) and discussion of matters relating to Iran, loans and assistance to Latin America, and budget hearings.]

Aid for Bolivia

6. Mr. Nolting reported that additional aid for Bolivia had been agreed to by interested government agencies and that the only question that remained was the source of funds. Mr. Stassen had proposed using $5,000,000 from appropriations for famine relief. Mr. Stassen had checked with certain members of Congress and received a favorable reaction to the use of famine relief funds. He had now prepared a memorandum1 for the President which was in the Department for the Secretary’s concurrence. Mr. Nolting’s recommendation was that the Secretary sign the memorandum requesting Presidential determination in favor of using famine relief funds. Mr. Kalijarvi said that the difficulty in using famine relief funds was that the Bolivian case was a continuing problem. He recommended, however, that the Secretary sign the memorandum to the President on the condition that procedures for the use of such aid be regularized in the future. General Smith recommended that the Secretary sign the memorandum since Mr. Stassen had worked the problem out with Congressional groups. Mr. Morton said that he shared Mr. Kalijarvi’s fears since our position before Congress had been that famine relief would not be used for straight economic aid purposes.2

[Here follows discussion concerning Austria, the Soviet Union, and other matters unrelated to Bolivia.]

  1. An unsigned copy of the referenced memorandum, dated Sept. 22, 1953, is contained in Secretary’s Letters, lot 56 D 459.↩
  2. ln a letter to Director of the Bureau of the Budget Dodge, dated Sept. 30, 1953, Secretary Dulles indicated that the Department of State approved the use of the Famine Relief Act to provide $5 million for the Bolivian aid program, and that this approval in no way signified the Department’s endorsement of procedures proposed by FOA for administration of the act (Secretary’s Letters, lot 56 D 459).↩