250. Memorandum From the Director of the Office of Defense Mobilization (Gray) to the President1
Section 7 of the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1955 requires the Director of the Office of Defense Mobilization to advise the President whenever he has reason to believe that any article is being imported into the United States in such quantities as to threaten to impair the national security.
Under authority of this law and under authority of your assigning to a committee of Cabinet members consideration of energy supplies and resources policy, quite extensive investigation has been made of the effect upon national security of crude oil imports into the United States. The investigation clearly established that the rate of imports could reach a point at which the incentive for exploration and development in this country would be so reduced as to make us dependent upon overseas oil supplies to meet our national energy requirement. Further, the investigation gave substantial support to a finding that a significant increase in imports over the level of imports in 1954, unless accompanied by a similar increase in domestic production, would threaten this impairment in our national security. Your committee reaffirmed this finding on October 17, 1956, and my own investigation during the past month supports it.
Upon the basis of present imports and their trend over the last several years, together with forecasts of their trend in the next few months. I do hereby advise you, pursuant to Section 7 of the Trade Agreements Extension Act of 1955, that I have reason to believe that [Page 674] crude oil is being imported into the United States in such quantities as to threaten to impair the national security.
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Areeda Papers, National Security Council: Oil. Drafted by CH. Kendall.↩