Office of the Historian

700.5 MSP/12–254

No. 299
Memorandum by the Director of the Office of European Regional Affairs (Moore) to the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs (Merchant)1

secret
Washington, December 2, 1954.

Subject:

  • NSC Meeting on the Fiscal Year 1956 MSP
1.
The attached memorandum from Mr. Nolting to the Secretary2 recommends views to be taken on the subject by the Secretary [Page 630] at the NSC meeting. A copy of the RA draft memorandum on this subject,3 which we discussed Tuesday afternoon,4 was made available to S/MSA with an indication of your general concurrence.
2.
In general Nolting’s views follow very closely those set out in our memorandum, except for two points which in our judgment have not been adequately covered. They are:
a.
our suggestion that the Defense proposal to put the MDAP program on a “pay-as-you-go” basis be fully explained to the Congress in terms of future appropriation implications;
b.
consideration of the effect of the “new capabilities study” on NATO equipment requirements and U.S. aid to support such requirements.
3.
Further, we would suggest that in connection with current review of basic national policy, we should examine the question of whether we should continue to build up military forces in friendly countries beyond their own capacity to support such forces not only in terms of our need to continue considerable economic aid but also in terms of our willingness to maintain these forces equipment-wise in an up-to-date manner. The United States will need to make a forthright statement at the Ministerial Meeting5 on its future aid policy concerning NATO countries, and any specific guidance from the NSC as to what we could tell our NATO partners, particularly in view of the U.S. position on the “new capability” concept,6 would be most useful.
4.
It is our understanding that the Secretary will be briefed on this subject around noon today (December 2).7 The briefing on Tuesday was not completed; the military portion of the aid program was not discussed.

Recommendation:

You may wish to arrange to attend the further briefing of the Secretary today and raise the points set forth above.

  1. Drafted by Kranich.↩
  2. Reference is to the memorandum of Dec. 1, supra.↩
  3. Not found in Department of State or Foreign Operations Administration files.↩
  4. No record of this meeting has been found in Department of State or Foreign Operations Administration files.↩
  5. For documentation on the Fifteenth Ministerial Meeting of the North Atlantic Council, see vol. v, Part 1, pp. 549 ff.↩
  6. For documentation on the “new capability” concept for NATO, see ibid., pp. 482 ff.↩
  7. No record of this meeting has been found in Department of State or Foreign Operations Administration files.↩