42. Letter From the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs (Gray) to the Deputy Under Secretary of State (Murphy)1
Dear Bob: I refer to your letter of 9 October 19562 and agree that we are on common ground on the provision of military equipment to Latin American governments for the purposes of both internal security and hemisphere defense on a reimbursable aid and, if necessary, on a grant aid basis. However, I am sure you will agree that requests for grant assistance for maintenance of internal security must be carefully scrutinized and considered on a case-by-case basis.
With reference to the participation of the military missions in Latin America in the provision of adequate information on which to base an estimate of internal security force requirements, their recommendations were incorporated in the over-all study presented by the Commander-in-Chief, Caribbean Command, which is receiving full consideration by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in their conduct of the reappraisal of the military situation in Latin America. I will advise you when this reappraisal, which will furnish us with a proposed country force basis which each nation should be encouraged to adopt as a national force structure for both hemisphere defense and internal security, will be available.
Where MAAGs are located in Latin American countries, present procedure dictates that consideration be given to the comments of the chiefs of the military missions when a country requests reimbursable aid. If there is no MAAG this is also the practice where we have established military missions. Regardless of the foregoing, I am certain that under Department of State Circular 168 of 5 September 19563 the U.S. Ambassador in each Latin American country will exercise his prerogative to request such comments from the chiefs of the military service missions.
I appreciate your support in the proposed establishment of a revolving fund for credit operations. This will in a great measure insure its chances of acceptance. We have begun the necessary work to request such a fund in FY 1958.
Sincerely yours,