Office of the Historian

12. Terms of Reference for the Interdepartmental Committee on Certain U.S. Aid Programs1

Washington, December 2, 1955.
1.
The Committee shall consist of the Deputy Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (Chairman), the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and Deputy Director of ICA for Program and Planning. The Chairman may invite the Bureau of the Budget to participate as an observer.
2.
The Committee shall examine special country situations2 where U.S.-supported military programs might impose undue burdens upon the economy of the country.
3.
In such situations the Committee shall initiate and develop analyses of military and economic programs, including:
(a)
the extent, origin and status of U.S. commitments;
(b)
objectives, missions, assumptions, feasibility, costs and justification for planned force levels;
(c)
long-range implications of developing and maintaining planned force levels in the light of the capability of the country to sustain them on a continuing basis consistent with economic objectives;
(d)
relationship of the U.S. military and economic aid programs to over-all political, economic, and military considerations.
4.
In special cases, where urgent action is required, the Committee shall develop and recommend revisions in current aid programs within existing policy.
5.
The Committee shall avoid, as far as possible, duplication of effort in its work. It may call upon the Central Intelligence Agency to supply intelligence advice, and, through the Defense member, upon the Joint Chiefs of Staff for military advice. It may call upon existing departmental and interdepartmental country working groups for staff studies, and may also request further special staff or field studies where necessary.
6.
This assignment does not alter present agency responsibilities for the determination and operation of current programs.
John Foster Dulles
Secretary of State

G. M. Humphrey
Secretary of the Treasury
C.E. Wilson
Secretary of Defense
John B. Hollister
Director, International Cooperation Administration
  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Project Clean Up, Military and Economic Aid. Confidential. No drafting information is given on the source text.↩
  2. For example:
    • Korea
    • Iran
    • Cambodia
    • Formosa
    • Japan
    • Thailand
    • Turkey
    • Vietnam
    • Spain
    • Pakistan
    • Laos
    • Philippines
    [Footnote in the source text.]    ↩