Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, American Republics: Multilateral; Mexico; Caribbean, Volume VI

97. Memorandum From the Regional Director for Latin American Operations (Atwood) to the Director of the International Cooperation Administration (Hollister)¹

Washington, October 15, 1956.

SUBJECT

• The FY–1957 Technical Cooperation Program for Latin America and the Extent to which Current ICA/W Policies have been Incorporated in its Development

This is a brief statement of the efforts which have been made in developing the FY–1957 Program Plan to incorporate current ICA policies.

The FY–1957 Latin American program has been developed in five major steps summarized as follows:

(1) In September and October of 1955 the missions in the Field were asked to develop and present the program for FY–1957. Together with a full set of guidelines, two major criteria were given them in connection with their program development: (a) to assure that the USOM and the American Embassy were satisfied that the objectives of the programs and projects proposed were consistent with and would help to achieve U.S. policy objectives in Latin America, and (b) to assure that the programs and projects were appropriate and effective contributions to selected host country programs which had objectives consistent with U.S. policy and which were wholeheartedly backed by the host country with both moral and financial support.

(2) As the proposed programs from the field were received during October they were put through the country-by-country review and development procedure which O/LA has developed and which brings together representatives from all of the DD/S offices, the Personnel and Controller’s offices of DD/M, DD/P, the General Counsel’s office, the Regional and Economic Bureaus of the Department of State, and the Department of Defense. During this review, which was carried on during the latter part of October, the same guidelines and criteria which had been sent to the field were applied to the program, country-by-country. In addition, criteria concerning funds to be “carried over” in project (including cooperative service and other project) accounts and personnel recruitment problems were considered. In reducing the field submissions totalling over $37,000,000 to a figure of $32,350,000, criteria calling for concentration of emphasis and elimination of marginal and peripheral projects were applied. The program was then presented to the Bureau of the Budget on November 3, 1955 with hearings held between November 19 and December 8.

(3) Following the Bureau of the Budget Hearings, further study of the program took place. USOM and American Embassy comments were taken into consideration during a thorough “Latin American Working Group” review during February 1956. (The Lima Conference of USOM Directors February 4 to 10, 1956, provided you an opportunity of presenting personally to the field representatives ICA principles and policies. At this conference Mr. Lyon and Ambassador Briggs elaborated U.S. foreign policy objectives and top officials of ICA spelled out policy from the regional, technical services, administrative and fiscal points of view. Dr. Russell, Mr. Sheppard and Mr. Murphy joined us in holding individual conferences with the USOM Directors as well as addressing the Conference in connection with Agency goals. Individual programs were discussed with the Directors.) Following the “Working Group” review the draft of country programs to be submitted to Congress was distributed throughout ICA and the Departments of State and Defense, which of course involved further review and refinements in the total program. On March 14 the Illustrative Program was submitted to the Congress; Congressional Committee Hearings were held from March 20 to June 30; and the Appropriations Act was signed by the President on July 31, 1956.²

(4) Preparatory to presentation to you for approval in early July 1956 the program was again reviewed in the light of comments from the field and from DD/S, DD/M, General Counsel, Department of State and the Bureau of the Budget. Guidelines for the implementation of the 1957 program were received from DD/O on July 23, and over-all directives on the “Refinement of the FY–1957 Mutual Security Program” were issued from July 25 to August 8. Field comments on the program presented to Congress were considered during another ICA/W review of country program plans, between July 25 and August 31, 1956. The Program Plan (printed copies) was submitted to appropriate officers for review and clearance on September 6. The Program Plan was also submitted to, and approved by, the Board of Directors of the Institute of Inter-American Affairs on September 13.³ Following a review of personnel recruitment problems and an agreement regarding personnel “ceilings”, the Program Plan was submitted for approval to the Director of ICA on October 9.

(5) Directives to the field have been prepared in draft, which set forth implementation levels, technician ceilings, criteria for program implementation and revised criteria and procedures in the field of budgeting and accounting. All of these directives are aimed directly or indirectly at bringing about a concentration of emphasis in the programs for each country, a tightening up of the administrative, fiscal and technical plans for each country program, the elimination of peripheral and marginal operations, and an orientation of the program toward the most effective implementation of policy objectives.

The Program Plan for Latin America for FY–1957 totals $32,350,000, the same as the program presented to Congress. The present implementation level for FY–1957 is planned at $30,400,000. The Program Plan for FY–1956 was presented to Congress at the $30,000,000 level, and with an over-program component totalled $32,664,800. The actual program for FY–1956 exceeded $29,000,000 in obligations, inclusive of $1.5 millions in reobligated prior year funds.

I must frankly admit that the results of the application of the above-mentioned criteria and policies are not very evident in the printed Program Plan submitted to you for approval, which lists 525 projects in Latin America. This figure is somewhat less than the 598 projects extant as of June 30, 1955, and the 641 individual projects that were planned last year; and, thus, it illustrates some concentration of emphasis in program planning. A preliminary count shows that at least 31 projects, involving a little over $1,000,000, have been completed or discontinued. Slightly over 30 new projects have been added.

As long as we classify the programs that we are carrying on in the field in terms of an arbitrary functional breakdown, it is practically impossible to indicate in the statistical data of a Program Plan the extent of concentration of emphasis that has taken place. For instance, in Bolivia you will find that 63 separate projects are listed. However, as you know, there are only about 4 or 5 major programs in Bolivia, and most of our energies and money are concentrated in 3 or 4 of them. In Chile there are 29 projects listed in the Program Plan, but almost half of our total energies are concentrated in one major program—the Plan Chilian—and the rest is really concentrated in only 1 or 2 programs.

The small program in the Dominican Republic had been fragmented in FY–1956 into five fields of activity. Our review reflected that our greatest impact was being made in the field of Education and that projects in Health and Sanitation, Agriculture, Public Administration and Industry were either of marginal significance or could be carried on by the Dominican Government without our assistance. Following this review the program for FY–1957 was limited to a single field of activity, Education, and our efforts in that field are being concentrated in a single project for the training of rural school teachers and the improvement of rural schools.

To summarize, I honestly feel that the program in Latin America has been tightened up, both as regards effectiveness in carrying out U.S. policy objectives and in terms of marginal or peripheral activities. Furthermore, I feel sure that considering the additional detail of directives we are sending to the field for actual implementation of the 1957 Program, we will expect to come even closer to meeting the criteria and policies that you have approved.

1. Source: Washington National Records Center, ICA Director’s Files, FRC 61 A 32, Box 309, Latin America.
2. Apparent reference to the Mutual Security Appropriations Act, 1957 (P.L. 853); for text, see 70 Stat. 733.
3. A copy of the minutes of the September 13 meeting of the Institute’s Board of Directors is in Washington National Records Center, ICA Director’s Files, FRC 61 A 32, Box 309, Latin America.