TO AMEND THE MUTUAL DEFENSE ASSISTANCE

ACT OF 1949

MONDAY, JUNE 5, 1950

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

Washington, D. C.

The committee met pursuant to call at 10:30 a. m. in room 1301, New House Office Building, Hon. John Kee presiding.

Chairman KEE. The committee will come to order.

We have for consideration this morning a proposed bill to extend the Mutual Defense Assistance Act of 1949, originally known as the military assistance program, the MAP. The title was amended by this committee to Mutual Defense Assistance Act. This measure has not yet been introduced in the House. However, it will be considered as proposed legislation.

Without objection, the committee print will appear at this point in the record.

(The document referred to is as follows:)

[Committee print, June 5, 1950]

A BILL To amend the Mutual Defense Assistance Act of 1949

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the first sentence of section 101 of the Mutual Defense Assistance Act of 1949 is hereby amended by striking out "and have heretofore requested such assistance" and inserting in lieu thereof "and request such assistance".

SEC. 2. Section 102 of such Act is hereby amended as follows:

(a) Designating such section as subsection (a).

(b) Adding the following new subsection:

"(b) In addition to the amounts heretofore authorized to be appropriated, there are hereby authorized to be appropriated to the President for the year ending June 30, 1951, for carrying out the provisions of this title, not to exceed $1,000,000,000."

SEC. 3. Paragraph (a) of section 104 of such Act is hereby amended by striking out "or to provide equipment or machinery (other than machine tools) for any such factory or other manufacturing establishment".

SEC. 4. Section 201 of such Act is hereby amended as follows:

(a) Designating such section as subsection (a).

(b) Adding the following new subsection:

"(b) In addition to the amounts heretofore authorized to be appropriated, there are hereby authorized to be appropriated for the year ending June 30, 1951, for carrying out the provisions of the Act of May 22, 1947, as amended, not to exceed $120,000,000."

SEC. 5. Section 302 of such Act is hereby amended as follows:

(a) Designating such section as subsection (a).

(b) Adding the following new subsection:

"(b) In addition to the amounts heretofore authorized to be appropriated, there are hereby authorized to be appropriated to the President for the year end

ing June 30, 1951, for carrying out the provisions of section 301, not to exceed $27,500,000."

SEC. 6. Section 303 of such Act is hereby amended as follows:

(a) Designating such section as subsection (a).

(b) Adding the following new subsection:

"(b) In addition to the amounts heretofore authorized to be appropriated, there are hereby authorized to be appropriated to the President the sum of $75,000,000, to be used and accounted for as provided in subsection (a) of this section."

SEC. 7. Section 403 of such Act is hereby amended as follows:

(a) Striking out the period at the end of the first sentence of subsection (d) and inserting in lieu thereof a colon and the following: "Provided, That during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1951, an additional $250,000,000 worth of excess equipment and materials may be so furnished."

(b) Adding the following new subsection:

"(e) Funds heretofore appropriated and the contract authority heretofore granted to the President under the head 'Mutual Defense Assistance Act' in the Second Supplemental Appropriation Act, 1950, are hereby authorized to be made available until June 30, 1951."

SEC. 8. Section 404 of such Act is hereby amended as follows:

(a) Striking out "and" after "Section 405" and inserting in lieu thereof a

comma.

(b) Striking out the period at the end of the section and adding the following: "and in subsection (c) of section 408."

SEC. 9. Section 408 of such Act is hereby amended as follows:

(a) Revising the first sentence of subsection (c) in the following particulars: (1) Striking out "5 percentum" and inserting in lieu thereof "10 per centum". (2) Striking out "amounts" and inserting in lieu thereof "funds and contract authority".

(3) Striking out the period at the end of the sentence and adding the following: "or for the purpose of providing military assistance to any other nation whose increased ability to defend itself against aggression is found by the President to be vital to the security of the United States."

(b) Revising subsection (d) in the following particulars:

(1) Striking out "administrative" wherever used.

(2) Striking out "in any such nation”.

(c) Revising subsection (e) by striking out all after "regional arrangement" and inserting in lieu thereof the following: "or to any other nation whose increased ability to defend itself against aggression is found by the President to be important to the security of the United States: Provided, That (1) whenever equipment or material is transferred from the stocks of, or services are rendered by, any agency, such nation shall first make available the fair value, as determined by the President, of such equipment, materials, or services, (2) before a contract is entered into, such nation shall (a) provide the United States with a dependable undertaking to pay the full amount of such contract which will assure the United States against any loss on the contract, and (b) shall agree to make funds available in such amounts and at such times as may be necessary to meet the payments required by the contract in advance of the time such payments are due: Provided further, That the total amount of outstanding contracts under this subsection, less the amounts which have been paid the United States by such nations, shall at no time exceed $100,000,000”.

Chairman KEE. We have before us this morning our distinguished Secretary of State, Hon. Dean Acheson, who needs no introduction either to this committee or to the audience.

Mr. Secretary, we are very glad to have you again with us, and you may proceed with your statement as you will.

STATEMENT OF HON. DEAN ACHESON, SECRETARY OF STATE

Secretary ACHESON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a prepared statement which perhaps I should read. Is that agreeable? Chairman KEE. We will be very glad to have you read it. It will be followed by a question period.

Secretary ACHESON. I am here to testify in support of a second mutual defense assistance program. Having only recently returned from the London meeting of the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty, I am filled with a sober consciousness of the importance of this measure, of its importance to the security of the free peoples of the world and to the achievement of our fundamental objective, the preventing of war and the winning of peace for ourselves and the generations which follow us.

I was privileged to describe to the Congress a few days ago what transpired in my meetings with Mr. Bevin and Mr. Schuman in Europe and to explain the actions taken by the North Atlantic Treaty Council. I have returned from Europe with increased confidence and assurance that the resources of the free world, not only the physical resources, but those of the spirit and the mind, are adequate to meet the threat that shadows our present existence.

But I have also been further impressed with the magnitude of our common task and the need for courageous, far-sighted, and inspired action by the United States and by the other free countries if we are to win the peace which the tense and troubled world so much desires.

This committee is well aware of the gravity of the international problems which confront us today. You are well aware of the existence of the threat to all people and all governments who stand for freedom, the dignity of the individual, and the role of law that is inherent in the policies and actions of Soviet Russia.

The Soviet Government, using communism in conjunction with their vast and unwarranted military strength, menaces other peoples of the world with the same denial of fundamental human rights which it has imposed on its own citizens.

A fundamental in the situation which we all well know, but which we sometimes accept unthinkingly, is that the world has shrunk in size and is shrinking every day. Communications, both physical and in the realm of ideas, have speeded up almost inconceivably in the last half century. We are no longer an isolated continent.

I need not underline what this means in terms of the continued well-being of our countrymen and in terms of the indivisibility and interdependence of the security of the free world. Our foreign policy can never lose sight of this fundamental factor. We all recognize that our well-being can be affected by events in far reaches of the globe.

The international position of the United States is today clear. We are using to the best of our abilities the resourcefulness, inventiveness, productivity, and the spirit of our great Nation, not only to improve and strengthen the way of life in which we all believe, but also to give support and strength to the other free nations of the world.

Almost all of these nations are still in the process of struggling back from the destructions of the past war to the point where they can add an increasing measure of strength to their determination in the collective effort to bring peace and security back to the world.

I believe the United States has measured up well to the responsibilities that have been thrust upon us. Our foreign policy rests on strong pillars.

First, our genuine adherence to and support of the Charter of the United Nations.

Second, our programs of economic and technical assistance aimed at revitalizing the economic health of the free world.

Third, our willingness to join in arrangements for collective defense under the United Nations as evidenced by our treaties with the countries of the Western Hemisphere and the countries of the North Atlantic community.

And, in connection with this last point, there is our program for military assistance for mutual defense.

My visit to France and to Great Britain and the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the countries of the North Atlantic Treaty impressed on me the importance of the United States measuring up to the responsibilities inherent in these troubled times, both in our own interest and for the interest of other free people.

There is no lack of will, resourcefulness of courage amongst the countries of the West. But the long-term economic and social problems which confornt them as they work for recovery and the pernicious subversion of specious communist propaganda make their situation one of unease and difficulty. They look to the United States to help provide the strong and clear leadership which is needed to realize the inherent strength of all.

It is clear that there is a particular and important export which the United States can provide and which must go hand in hand with the physical assistance we are providing the free world. This is an export of spirit, an export of the confidence and assurance which is so genuinely an attribute of our country.

There is a need for the United States to provide this sort of leadership in the world today. Not, I repeat not, the dictatorial commands of a Kremlin, but the sort of leadership which arises from confidence that the vast physical, spiritual, and moral resources of free men can be joined together to create the kind of free and secure world community we all desire.

For the United States to assume such a position is both proper and sensible. Our position must be compatible with the preservation of soundness and strength in our own economy. And it must honestly and forthrightly derive from our enlightened self-interest-a selfinterest which is identical with the self-interest of the other free people. We have as a nation taken such a position in the past and we must maintain it steadfastly in the future.

The solution to the problems which obstruct the achievement of a secure peace is not impossible to find. We are, I believe, well embarked on a path to the solution. The democratic nations of the world have recognized the necessity of hanging together lest they hang separately.

They are taking timely action in advance of crisis to bring back the strength, both economic and military, which is basic to the attainment of our common goals. The problems vary in different areas of the world, but all are intimately interconnected.

I should like to treat each of these areas separately and to show the application of the proposed mutual defense assistance program to the problems involved in each of them.

Western Europe is an area to which we are tied by the closest bonds. In western Europe lie the mother lands of most of our people. Our institutions, our laws, and, in fact, our civilization derives principally from this area.

In the group of free nations in western Europe are found intelligent and adept people, an industrial complex for production exceeded only by our own, and a devotion to democracy and justice that matches our own. The Marshall plan which has assisted nearly all of the western European countries, has been aimed at restoring the economic health and viability of western Europe-an essential, if the democratic institutions there are to continue to exist.

With certain of the countries of western Europe, we with Canada, have joined in the Atlantic Treaty. The preponderance of funds asked for in the mutual defense assistance program now before you is intended for this area.

This is appropriate not only because the countries involved are able and willing to utilize this assistance to supplement their own self-help and the help they are giving each other to provide the strong military posture for the North Atlantic community which is absolutely essential if the peace is eventually to be won, but also because this area is a key to eventual success in all other areas.

I, myself, am gratified and reassured at the speed with which the North Atlantic Treaty organization has made a good beginning toward collective action for defense. This organization in much less than a year has developed and agreed upon basic strategic concepts and plans and, to a certain extent, has already begun to translate those plans into action. I believe there is no precedent in history for as much substantive achievement in the way of organizing collective defense as has taken place in the few months the North Atlantic Treaty organization has been operating.

As a result of the meeting of the council of the treaty in London, I can assure you that more will happen soon. The council meeting was marked with honest discussion of the realities which must be faced if the North Atlantic Treaty, and the action taken by the member governments within the context of the treaty, is to provide the solution to the problem of peace for the western world.

I wish to stress the importance of the agreement by the North Atlantic Treaty nations to base the build-up of defensive forces on the principle of balanced collective forces rather than balanced national forces. In agreeing to this principle, the countries involved, including those whose borders abut with Soviet Russia on which lie within a few hundred miles of the foremost elements of the Red Army, have demonstrated their readiness to take concrete steps in order to realize the fundamental objectives of world peace and a free society.

The mutual defense assistance program, insofar as it pertains to the nations who have asked for help through the treaty, is derived to the largest degree possible from North Atlantic Treaty planning. This planning has resulted in the establishment of military deficiencies in order of their priority. These have been related to the ability of the United States to provide mutual assistance to help fill them.

The planning under the North Atlantic Treaty is not yet completed in the sense that a total bill of requirements in great detail can be laid before you. However, the general outlines of requirements have been developed. They are now being reviewed in further detail and in accord with sound principles.

It has been agreed that the forces to be raised and equipped should be based on the most modern military techniques and the utilization of the most modern weapons capable of mass production. The intent