731.5 MSP/1–1354

Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs ( Nash ) to the Acting Special Assistant to the Secretary for Mutual Security Affairs ( Nolting )

secret

Subject:

  • Concurrence in Recommendation that Venezuela be Accorded Privilege of Purchasing Military Equipment under Sixty Day Payment Plan
1.
Reference is made to your letter, 25 November 1953,1 on the above subject. This letter requested information as to whether the Department of Defense would concur in a recommendation to the Director of the Foreign Operations Administration that Venezuela be permitted subject terms of payment.
2.
The Department of Defense concurs from a military viewpoint in recommending to the Director of the Foreign Operations Administration that a determination be made that it is in the interest of the United States that Venezuela be permitted to purchase military equipment available from stock and pay for such equipment within sixty days after delivery. This is in accordance with H.R. 7005, which became the Mutual Security Act of 1952, (PL 400, 82nd Congress, 2nd Session, approved 20 June 1952).2
3.
In connection with the aforementioned recommendation, the following points should be noted:
a.
Sale of matériel for payment within sixty days is confined to those items from the stocks of the military departments. The term “stocks” includes those stocks on hand and available for prompt delivery or those on order and available for delivery within thirty days from the date of the order. Any orders received from the eligible foreign [Page 1662] government which cannot be filled in this manner will fall within the provisions of Section 408(e) of the Mutual Defense Assistance Act, as amended, relating to dependable undertakings, or arrangements must be made with the country concerned for deposit of cash in advance.
b.
If requests, particularly for spare parts and secondary items, were to become numerous, some system involving a blanket dependable undertaking similar to that in effect for Canada would probably be required in order to finance these small scale transactions without the necessity of informing the Government concerned in each and every case that an advance of funds was required.
4.
The Department of Defense concurs with the Department of State in the belief that to permit Venezuela to buy military equipment on sixty day payment terms will go a long way in solving a problem in United States-Venezuelan relations.
For the Assistant Secretary of Defense (ISA):
A. C. Davis

Vice Admiral, USN
Director, Office of Foreign Military Affairs
  1. Not printed (731.5 MSP/11–2353).
  2. For text of the act, see 66 Stat. 141.