99. Memorandum of a Conversation Between Senator Mike Mansfield and the Under Secretary of State (Dillon), Department of State, Washington, December 18, 19591
SUBJECT
- The Mutual Security Program
Senator Mansfield asked me about the military assistance program and said he wanted to be sure the State Department still retained full control over the military assistance program as this was the intent of the Congress. He said the Foreign Relations Committee during the coming MSP hearings would inquire into this whole subject so as to make very clear the Senate’s view that the State Department [Page 274] should have the final authority in the military assistance program. I assured the Senator that our relations with the Defense Department are excellent and that I now think the State Department’s influence is more effective in the management of the military assistance program than ever before.
Senator Mansfield said he had heard from the staff members of his subcommittee in Vietnam who had been there for three weeks, and while they had found a few things to criticize, they had in general found nothing very much wrong. He regretted the public findings by a certain Senator who was in Vietnam for only two days and whose findings did not accord with those of the sub-committee staff.2 He said the report of the committee would be framed in such a way that its recommendations would be generalized for the whole aid program rather than specifically directed toward Vietnam.
- Source: Department of State, Saigon Embassy Files: Lot 65 F 115, 362 Legislative Branch. Confidential. Drafted by Dillon. Attached to a letter from Parsons to Durbrow, January 27, 1960, not printed.↩
- Apparent reference to the visit of Senators Albert Gore of Tennessee and Gale McGee of Wyoming, December 7–8.↩