89. Editorial Note

At a meeting of the National Security Council on November 3, in NSC Action No. 1466, the Council noted and discussed a Progress Report by the Operations Coordinating Board, dated August 31, on NSC 5503, “U.S. Policy Toward Formosa and the Government of the Republic of China” (volume II, Document 12), covering the period January 1–July 14, 1955. (Department of State, S/SNSC (Miscellaneous) Files: Lot 66 D 95) A copy of the Progress Report is ibid., OCB Files: Lot 62 D 480, Formosa and GRC, 1955. The memorandum of the NSC discussion records that Dillon Anderson briefed the Council [Page 155] on the contents of the Progress Report and that, at the conclusion of his briefing, Acting Secretary of Defense Reuben B. Robertson, Jr., said that “he merely wished to call the Council’s attention to the problem which faced the Defense Department in funding both the MDAP program and direct assistance to the Chinese National Government. Assistance to Formosa was currently running well over the rate of $300 million annually. If the Administration proposed to try to cut down the total level of U.S. military assistance worldwide, the program for Formosa and for Turkey would have to be given very serious thought.” (Memorandum of discussion by Gleason, November 4; Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, NSC Records)