Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, Western Europe and Canada, Volume VI, Part 2

Rome Embassy files, lot 59 F 222, “320.1—Off Shore Procurement 1950–1952”

No. 735
The Deputy United States Special Representative in Europe (Anderson) to the Ambassador in Italy (Bunker)¹

confidential

Paris, December 11, 1952.

Dear Mr. Ambassador: Your recent cables on the urgency of getting offshore procurement in Italy underway at an early date, as well as your letter to W. Averell Harriman, dated 12 November 1952,² on the same subject, have been of prime interest to both Ambassador Draper and myself.

The effective use of offshore procurement to further our political objectives in Italy has loomed large in our thinking here and influenced, to a major degree, our initial recommendations for offshore procurement submitted to Washington. Since the submission of our initial recommendations, the following actions have been taken to hasten administrative procedures on the implementation of the offshore procurement program, particularly as pertains to Italy.

a. On November 13, Mr. Finlay and staff members of SRE met in Rome with you and other members of your Country Team to discuss various phases of Italian OSP.³ That discussion accented the need for early resolution of the extent to which Italy will share in FY 53 OSP and the importance of letting contracts as soon as possible.

b. Following this conference, SRE recommended to Washington certain procedures whereby Italy might be favored through special negotiations and considerations, particularly in the category of ammunition which represents a large portion of the total money value of the program. We proposed that Italy should receive a minimum of $80 million in ammunition contracts. Our recommendations are now being considered by Washington and the procurement authorities in EUCOM.

c. In the shipbuilding field, the U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships Negotiating Team is now in Italy. During the team’s stay, definitive contracts will be drawn up for ships on the FY 52 program and letters of intent for approved construction on the FY 53 program will be finalized. It is anticipated that this work will be concluded by the end of this month. The letters of intent will not only establish a firm FY 53 OSP Naval program in Italy, but will also provide all necessary authority to start immediate construction.

d. In the field of aircraft, you, of course, are aware of our efforts to implement as soon as possible a modified version of the NATO International Staff plan for procurement of fighter-type planes in Europe.⁴ Under this plan, Italy would receive some $26 million of U.S. funds. Further, SRE has recommended Italy as the most desirable production source for F–84 spare parts.

As you have pointed out in your letter, administrative obstacles to actually getting procurement underway are numerous and time consuming. It is unfortunate that program refinement processes do not permit the effects of our offshore procurement to really be felt until some six months after the beginning of each new fiscal year. It will be, therefore, difficult to completely satisfy the present critical Italian situation by guaranteeing the actual placement of contracts in sufficient time to show results.

I can again assure you that our interest in expediting the program in terms of the problem in Italy are of first priority, and we will do everything possible here to hasten action on the placement of contracts.

Sincerely yours,

Fred L. Anderson

1. A notation on the source text indicates that a copy of this letter was also sent to Harriman.
2. Document 733.
3. The substance of this discussion was described in telegram 2212 from Rome, Nov. 14. (765.5 MSP/11–1452)
4. See footnote 3, supra.