194. Editorial Note

On June 13, Colonel Robert W. Duke, USA, Military Assistant to Hensel, sent a memorandum to Brigadier General James K. Wilson, Jr., USA, Director of the Office of Military Assistance Policy, requesting an explanation for the slow delivery of military equipment to Pakistan. According to Duke, Hensel wanted to know why Pakistan had been accorded a lower priority than other Asian countries in terms of the Military Defense Assistance Program. (Memorandum from Duke to Wilson, June 13; Department of Defense, OASD/ISA Files, NESA Records, Pakistan)

In response, Wilson, on June 25, summarized the United States commitment to Pakistan under the program. Of the total $34.2 million in military aid allocated to Pakistan for fiscal year 1954, he explained, $7.9 million had been delivered as of March 31, 1955, and the military departments expected to complete delivery of the fiscal year 1954 program by December 1956. Wilson stated that under the present Joint Chiefs of Staff statement of priorities for the peacetime allocation of military equipment, approved by the Secretary of Defense, Pakistan was in the third priority. As a result, he noted, [Page 430] some delay in the delivery of certain military equipment had been experienced. “The Pakistan government is having economic difficulties in raising the additional troops required to properly use all this equipment,” he added. “An increase in priority which would result in an acceleration of deliveries would add to these difficulties and would establish a requirement for increased economic aid.” Wilson thus concluded this memorandum with the recommendation that deliveries to Pakistan be continued at the scheduled rate and under priorities as presently established. (Memorandum from Wilson to Hensel, June 25; ibid.)