Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Western Europe and Canada, Volume VI, Part 2

U/MSC files, lot 59 D 449, “MAP—Italy (FY 1952–1954)”

No. 734
The Director for Mutual Security (Harriman) to the Deputy Secretary of Defense (Foster)¹

secret

Washington, December 1, 1952.

Dear Bill: This letter is designed to emphasize the great importance which I attach to the prompt placement of a large volume of offshore procurement contracts in Italy and to express my growing personal concern over our apparent lack of progress in this regard to date.

As I am sure you already appreciate, the early placement of such contracts could have a significant effect on the outcome of the critical national elections which are now scheduled for May 1953. This relationship has been stressed and restressed by everyone concerned—by each of the agencies participating in the Mutual Security Program, by our country team in Rome and, most recently, by Ambassador Bunker in a number of urgent personal communications to Secretary Acheson, Secretary Lovett and myself.² It is because of this fact that I am deeply disturbed over my inability to see tangible evidence that the extraordinary measures necessary to effect the prompt placement of these contracts have as yet been taken or are immediately contemplated.

I understand that the bulk of the FY 1953 offshore procurement program has already been refined to the individual item level and that it is now possible specifically to identify some $100 to $150 million of items which will almost certainly be procured in Italy. The latter include, I am told, certain naval vessels, aircraft spares and equipment, completed aircraft under the Ismay/Batt aircraft proposal³ and certain categories of Army ammunition. If this understanding is correct, I would hope that it would also be possible, by prompt and vigorous action, and if necessary by resort to extraordinary procedures, to place contracts, or at least to issue letters of intent, covering a large volume of procurement in Italy by early in the new year—sufficiently early so that the impact thereof can at least begin to be reflected in subcontracts and in employment before the May elections. I think you would agree that this result cannot be accomplished within the limited period available if offshore procurement in Italy is treated routinely as only part of the larger problem of offshore procurement in all of Europe.

I hope that you can give this problem your personal attention and that it will prove possible for the Department of Defense to identify, and to initiate immediate procurement action on, those items in the offshore procurement program on which it is reasonably certain that Italy will be the source. Anything you can do in this regard will be greatly appreciated by me, and I will also be grateful if you can keep me currently advised of the progress which is made.

Sincerely yours,

W. A. Harriman

1. Drafted by Berger, Arth, and Ohly.
2. Bunker’s letter to Harriman, Nov. 12, which he also sent to Acheson and Lovett, is printed Supra.
3. The Ismay/Batt proposal was a NATO working group plan formulated in 1951 for the procurement of aircraft and aircraft parts from various European countries. A description of the background of the proposal, particularly as it related to Italy, is in a memorandum from Arth to Ohly, Apr. 28, 1953. (U/MSC files, lot 59 D 449, “MAP—Italy (FY 1952–54)”)