No. 276
Editorial Note
On May 5 President Eisenhower sent a special message to Congress recommending passage of legislation extending the Mutual Security Program whose basic purpose the President characterized as “simply the long-term security of the United States living in the shadow of the Soviet threat”. The President requested approximately $5,250 million for military weapons and for direct support of the defense efforts of friends and allies and approximately $550 million for technical, economic, and developmental purposes. Unlike President Truman in 1952, President Eisenhower did not present Congress with a specific region-by-region breakdown as to how the requested funds would be spent. The total amount requested by President Eisenhower represented a reduction of approximately $1.8 billion from the Truman Administration’s projected mutual security request. (Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953, pages 256–259)
Both Secretary Dulles and Mutual Security Director Stassen testified before a joint meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs Committees on May 5. During the course of his remarks, Dulles stated that “a main objective of the program is to get the most security for the least cost”. He also observed that a large part of the total amount was being requested for defense of the European area within the framework of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and that the most careful planning had gone [Page 541] into the fashioning of the request. “There is no ‘water’ in this program to be squeezed out without taking greater risks than we believe are acceptable at the present time”, Dulles stated in connection with the European portion of the proposed program. During the course of his testimony, Stassen stated that the program before the two committees “represents the product of months of work by the National Security Council where each of our security objectives was carefully studied, and its importance weighed in relation to the fiscal considerations” that so greatly concerned Secretary of the Treasury George Humphrey and others. The testimony of Secretary Dulles and Mutual Security Director Stassen is printed in Department of State Bulletin, May 25, 1953, pages 736–742.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee held hearings on extension of the Mutual Security Program in March. (83d Congress, 1st Sess., House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Hearings … Mutual Security Act Extension, March 1953) Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on the Mutual Security bill took place in the latter half of May. (83d Congress, 1st Sess., Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Hearings on a bill to amend the Mutual Security Act of 1951, May 15–29, 1953) On May 27, President Eisenhower reduced his initial request by $354 million. On June 16, the House Foreign Affairs Committee reported H.R. 5710 authorizing $5 billion. Subsequently, the full House passed the bill after rejecting all amendments proposing further reductions but agreeing to an amendment by Representative Fulton (R.–Pennsylvania) requiring disposal of surplus agricultural commodities wherever possible. The Senate version of the Mutual Security bill authorized a grant of $5.3 billion and passed on July 1. A conference report fixing an authorization figure of $5,157.2 million was approved on July 10 and passed both houses on July 13. This agreement was reached, however, with the knowledge that the Appropriations Committees of both houses were working on further reductions in the appropriating legislation.
Secretary Dulles testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee on the Mutual Security Program on July 9, stressing again the vital nature of the Mutual Security Program to national security. During the course of his remarks, the Secretary stated that NATO forces had not yet reached an adequate level, and that an increased emphasis must be placed on aid to the Far East and to the military aid program for Latin America. The Secretary’s testimony is printed in Department of State Bulletin, July 20, 1953, pages 88–92.
Following passage of the Mutual Security authorization bill and while the House and Senate Appropriations Committees were considering further cuts in the appropriations legislation, President Eisenhower, [Page 542] supported by Stassen and General Gruenther, invited Senators and Representatives to breakfasts and luncheons in an attempt to save the Mutual Security Program from further reduction. But during late July both the Senate and House Appropriations Committees and the full House decided upon further large cuts and, as a result of a compromise reached on August 3, a final appropriation of $4,531.5 million was agreed to which, together with $2,120.9 million carried over from the year just ended, gave the Administration a total sum of $6,652.4 million. Regarding the provisions of the 1953 Mutual Security legislation, see Document 280. Public Law 118, the Mutual Security Act of 1953, was signed by President Eisenhower on July 16, 1953. (67 Stat. 152–161)