571. Excerpt From Informal Notes of the Meeting of the Operations Coordinating Board, Washington, June 6, 19561
There was discussion of the OCB 1290–d paper of May 29. Mr. Gordon Gray opposed the idea of stimulating the Government of Venezuela to request a survey of the Venezuelan national security organization. Mr. Hollister said he also was not favorably impressed with the need for such a survey and that he was strongly opposed to the proposal that ICA be asked to pay for it. He said that, if the Venezuelan Government spontaneously asked for a survey, ICA would not object to its being undertaken, but the Venezuelan Government should pay for it.
Mr. MacArthur spoke along the lines of Mr. Holland’s memorandum of June 1 and said that while the Department of State did not think, on balance, that a survey was necessary, it could not agree to such a survey except under the circumstances set forth in paragraph 54c of the OCB 1290–d paper.
Mr. Dulles said he was not fully briefed on this as he had spent the morning at the Army War College at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He had been under the impression that the Venezuelan Government had in fact requested a survey, and since this was not the case, he was disposed personally to agree with Mr. Gordon Gray that the Venezuelan Government not be stimulated to ask for such a survey and that this proposal be dropped. He was also impressed with the political considerations involved which Mr. MacArthur had outlined. He said, however, that before definitively agreeing to drop this project, he would like to check with his people, and it was agreed that he should do so and that the item would come up again for consideration at the OCB meeting next Wednesday.2