Office of the Historian

868.00/2–2747

Memorandum by the Director of the Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs (Henderson) to the Under Secretary of State (Acheson)

confidential
[Washington,] February 27, 1947.

Copies of the memorandum which you have addressed to me on the subject of “Implementation of Measures for Aid to Greece and Turkey” will be sent to Messrs. Clayton, Cohen, Benton,1 Hilldring,2 Thorp,3 Fahy,4 Eddy,5 Hickerson, and Ness. This will give all the [Page 65] interested offices an official statement of the decision made by the President to support this program. I believe, however, that something further is necessary to impress the gravity and difficulties of the situation upon the officers who will be devoting a large part of their time in the next few weeks to this problem.

I suggest that, when the carbon copies of your memorandum to me are distributed, the officers who will receive them be asked to indicate the persons in their offices who will be actively and substantially involved in the necessary work. The persons so designated should be assembled early tomorrow morning for a brief meeting, at which time they should be informed of the background of this problem, the program which has been approved and the procedures for further action on the program. I believe that such a meeting would be most effective if you could make the opening remarks and set the tone for any discussion which might follow.6

L[oy] W. H[enderson]
  1. William Benton, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs.↩
  2. John H. Hilldring, Assistant Secretary of State for Occupied Areas.↩
  3. Willard L. Thorp, Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs.↩
  4. Charles Fahy, Legal Adviser.↩
  5. William A. Eddy, Special Assistant to the Secretary of State for Research and Intelligence.↩
  6. Mr. Acheson indicated his approval in a marginal notation on February 27.

    An attached memorandum of February 28 (authorship not indicated), entitled “Agenda for Meeting on Implementation of Aid to Greece”, stated that the steering group comprised Messrs. Henderson, Chairman; Ness, economic aspects; Russell, public relations; Sandifer, Congressional relations; Hickerson, British aspects; Jernegan, Secretary for the group; and Gange, for the Secretary’s Office. Francis Russell was Director of the Office of Public Affairs and Durward V. Sandifer was Acting Legislative Counsel.

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