Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Foreign Economic Policy, Volume IV

226. Memorandum From Secretary of State Dulles to President Eisenhower ⁰

September 13, 1958.

SUBJECT

• Military Aid Component of the Mutual Security Program

We have discussed on several occasions, in the context of securing necessary Congressional and public support for the Mutual Security Program, the basic problem of achieving a realistic balance between the military and non-military components of that program. We have recognized on the one hand the vital necessity for increasing efforts to meet the economic challenge of the underdeveloped countries and on the other the requirement for continuing military assistance at a level adequate to meet our genuine security needs.

Senator Green’s letter to you of August 25¹ makes it clear that unless we are able to justify a military assistance program in forthright and explainable terms, however, we will be faced with increasing pressures for indiscriminate cuts in military assistance funds in the interest of devoting the resulting savings to economic development programs. These pressures will be most difficult to resist without definitive assurances that the programs recommended by the administration are in fact sound and fully justified in the national interest. I am not convinced that we can provide such assurances if we are simply to present a military assistance program to the next Congress in terms fundamentally similar to those used in the past.

I believe therefore that before the next Mutual Security Program appropriation is requested of the Congress, it would be desirable that the basic purposes of our military aid, and the standards to be used in fixing its level, be appraised by a public committee of respected and qualified private citizens. The results of that appraisal would be embodied in a public report; its implications might be further elaborated in a classified annex. These results could be taken into account by the Congress in passing on the FY 1960 program and by the State and Defense staffs in fixing for FY 1961 the force goals which underlie levels of military aid.

The public reports which were prepared last year by committees under Benjamin Fairless and Eric Johnston² were helpful in securing Congressional acceptance of the Development Loan Fund and the concept of long-term development financing which it implied. I believe that a similar report which concentrated more on our military aid could be similarly helpful in placing this vital aspect of the Mutual Security Program on a sound long-term basis.

If you approve this proposal, Secretary McElroy & I will submit recommendations concerning the persons to serve on this committee.

I am forwarding a copy of this memorandum to Secretary McElroy.³

JFD

0. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, Dulles–Herter Series. Confidential. The source text bears Eisenhower’s handwritten notation: “Time element will be important. OK in principle. D” Another copy of the memorandum notes it was drafted by Wilson and concurred in by Assistant Secretary of State for Policy Planning Gerard Smith and Special Assistant for Mutual Security Coordination Robert G. Barnes. It also bears the following handwritten notation: “9/22 AG[oodpaster] at Newport says President approved in principle but there will need to be continued close coordination between State & Def. FH” (Department of State, Central Files, 700.5–MSP/9–1258) Fisher Howe was Director of the Executive Secretariat, Department of State.
1. For text, see American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1958, pp. 1588–1590. Eisenhower’s September 11 reply is ibid., pp. 1594–1595.
2. Reference is to the “Report to the President by the President’s Citizen Advisers on the Mutual Security Program,” March 1, 1957 (Washington, 1957) and “A New Emphasis on Economic Development Abroad: A Report to the President of the United States on Ways, Means and Reasons for U.S. Assistance to International Economic Development” (Washington: The International Development Advisory Board, 1957), submitted to the President on March 4, 1957. For extracts of these reports, see American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1957, pp. 1514–1529.
3. McElroy discussed the memorandum with the Joint Chiefs of Staff the morning of September 17. The Department of Defense generally concurred with the idea. (Memorandum from Howe to Goodpaster, September 17; Eisenhower Library, Staff Secretary Records, ICA)