768.5/5–1151: Telegram
The Ambassador in Yugoslavia (Allen) to the Secretary of State
priority
1671. Deptel 1207, May 2.1 My next following tel2 is statement which might be read to comites re need for arms aid to Yugo.
However, it seems to me we wld be well advised, before asking Congress for appropriations for outright military aid to Yugo, to obtain a clear request, in writing from Yugo Govt, requesting such aid from US and stating reasons therefore. Last official Yugo statement on subject was press statement of April 12 (Embtel 1487, April 123), in which Yugo Govt admitted only that it was seeking arms from abroad through commercial channels. Dept might be embarrassed if comites asked to see actual Yugo request and we had nothing more than Djilas list to produce even in executive session. It is conceivable that Yugo Govt might feel called on to deny, during hearings, that it had sought arms from US on other than [Page 1791] commercial basis, leaving implication that we were pressing our arms on reluctant recipient.
Yugo Govt may still be hesistant, primarily for internal CPY reasons, to make outright request for finished arms on non-commercial basis, but I do not believe we should risk embarrassing ourselves and I expect Yugo Govt wld make clear-cut request if we let it be known that we could not act on any other basis.
Because of lack of clarity in situation, I have avoided in following statement, any specific reference to Yugo position re seeking arms aid as suggested in Deptel 1207, and wld welcome Dept’s reaction to foregoing views before attempting anything on this particular point.
- Telegram 1207 requested a brief statement concerning the need for arms aid to Yugoslavia “as you see it” for possible reading to Congressional committees dealing with these matters. (768.5/5–251)↩
- Telegram 1672 from Belgrade, May 11, contained Allen’s statement which emphasized that in terms of the imminence of the threat of attack, the determination to resist, the effectiveness of this resistance, the strategic importance of the area to be defended, and the readiness of Yugoslavia to cooperate in matters of collective security, Yugoslavia ranked very high among those foreign countries who needed U.S. military aid. (768.5/5–1151)↩
- Telegram 1487 quoted the text of a Borba article in which Veljo Vlahović stated that the Yugoslav Government, “through customary channels, asked and is asking to obtain means to strengthen its armament industry and to obtain certain quantity of defensive weapons”. (768.56/4–1251)↩