Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume VIII, National Security Policy

99. Memorandum From the Interagency Committee on Police Assistance Programs to President Kennedy⁰

Washington, July 20, 1962.

SUBJECT

• Report of Committee on Police Assistance Programs

There is hereby submitted the report of the interagency committee created pursuant to your request in National Security Action Memorandum 146.¹

Briefly, the Committee believes that the U.S. police assistance programs form a very important but neglected part of our intensified effort to help emerging nations counter subversion and insurgency. Such programs are particularly helpful as “preventive medicine”, since the police are normally responsible for coping with urban and rural dissidence before it reaches major proportions. Moreover, police assistance costs very little in comparison to the potential return. For example, in the peak year of FY 1958 the cost of AID programs in 21 countries, involving 690,000 police, totaled only about $14,000,000. In that year, DOD programs ran $5,800,000 in 5 countries. It is also worth noting that the Bloc has not to date provided much competition in this field. We and our allies should continue to pre-empt them in this highly sensitive area.

However, police programs in general, despite their repeated highest level endorsement since 1954, have not received the U.S. Government attention they deserve. The most serious weakness has been lack of strong central direction by the responsible agencies and comparative neglect by their policy-level officials over the past several years. We have also identified serious technical shortcomings that limit the effectiveness of our programs.

The Committee further believes that we have set our program sights too low. The U.S. should increase its emphasis on the use of police programs as counter-insurgency tools wherever there is a clearly demonstrable need. After a quick survey, we feel that the U.S. could perhaps usefully invest up to double the present program level over the next year or so, if adequate personnel can be found. Thereafter we would envisage a more gradual increase, but almost certainly a continued substantial one in view of the increasing number of new countries needing such help. Indeed, we doubt that there is another aspect of the U.S. internal defense effort where greater gains can be realized at such small cost.

But police assistance programs will not reach their full potential unless the program is given more vigorous management. While the Committee believes that this management should be civilian in character, and thus should remain logically in AID, this agency must greatly strengthen its capabilities to manage police programs if the objective is to be achieved.

Much improved training, both of foreign police personnel and of U.S. trainers, is another pressing need. Since present U.S. facilities are wholly inadequate, there should be established in the U.S. an international police academy for this purpose. Detailed studies should immediately be undertaken to this end. The U.S. needs to develop a professional cadre of experienced police advisors, few of whom exist at present.

Therefore, the Committee recommends that you approve the following recommendations which are designed to overcome these shortcomings and to give proper focus to a key element in the U.S. internal defense effort:²

1. That the U.S. give considerably greater emphasis to police assistance programs in appropriate less developed countries where there is an actual or potential threat of internal subversion or insurgency; to this end, while individual programs should be subject to normal review processes, AID should envisage very substantial increases in the global level of the FY 1963 program, with further increases in subsequent years where there is a demonstrated need. DOD should also give, where appropriate, increased emphasis to the police aspects of existing MAP programs.

2. That the Committee’s statement of the role and function of police programs and criteria for their initiation in the attached report be the basis for guidance in Washington and to the field; that, using this guidance, AID insure that Washington agencies and country teams give appropriate priority to police assistance, including equipment where needed.

3. That, subject to the general policy guidance of the Department of State in internal defense matters, the Administrator of AID be charged, in his capacity as coordinator of U.S. aid programs, with responsibility for coordination and vigorous leadership of all police assistance programs; that he establish an interagency police group, to be chaired by his designee, to assist him in this responsibility.

4. That AID be charged with operating and funding responsibility for all such programs, except for their covert aspects and for those programs which the Administrator of AID decides should be carried out by the Department of Defense.

5. That to carry out its responsibilities, AID establish an office specifically charged with police matters, staffed with sufficient qualified personnel to: (a) provide centralized professional and technical planning guidance to the country teams, police missions and State and AID regional bureaus; (b) provide professional and technical guidance and professional and technical supervision in implementing programs; (c) establish and supervise training requirements for U.S. police technicians, and standards of evaluating professional competence; (d) to conduct surveys and program evaluations; (e) to provide an essential repository of technical knowledge based on research in the latest techniques of controlling subversion and mass violence; that AID appoint a senior professional to head this office, responsible to the Special Assistant-Internal Defense with direct access to the Deputy Administrator; that while line responsibility for AID police programs remains with each regional AID bureau, sufficient professional personnel should be assigned to the new Office to provide the centralized staff support outlined above.

6. That AID promptly devise methods for improving recruitment and training of personnel especially suitable for work with foreign police forces; that other U.S. agencies cooperate in making qualified personnel available for duty with the police assistance program without prejudice to their career status.

7. That AID should initiate the necessary studies and interdepartmental coordination looking toward early establishment of an international police academy under Government management to coordinate training more closely with U.S. internal defense objectives and tighten U.S. Government control over all training to improve its quality and insure its responsiveness to need.

8. That, to protect police programs, with their primarily internal defense rationale, from suffering as marginal competitors with primarily economic development projects, AID and the Bureau of the Budget should develop some means of providing the necessary degree of funding autonomy, such as creating a new AID line item for “internal defense” in the FY 1964 budget or funding through the Military Assistance Program though keeping the program in AID.

9. That AID develop ways to expedite delivery of equipment, perhaps through stockpiling standard items.

10. That, whenever possible, we coordinate our police effort with similar programs of other friendly Western countries to assure that they are complementary; that we encourage such countries to provide similar assistance where appropriate but not rely exclusively on them for this purpose; that our aims in this respect should be to assure that adequate Western assistance is available to any country which needs it and to deny the police assistance field to the Communist Bloc.

11. That the Administrator of AID, as coordinator of U.S. aid programs, be charged with carrying out the above recommendations, and that he report to you no later than 1 December 1962 on progress made; that this report include his revised FY 1963 and proposed FY 1964 program level.

12. That the Special Group (C-I) review the implementation of this report in accordance with the responsibilities assigned under National Security Action Memorandum 124.³

• FC⁴
  AID Member
• Henry Rowen
  DOD Member
  [name not declassified]
  CIA Member
• Robert Amory, Jr.
  BOB Member
• Courtney Evans
  Justice Member
• RW Komer
  WH Staff Member
• U. Alexis Johnson
  Chairman and State Member

0. Source: Department of State, S/S-NSC Files: Lot 70 D 265, Interdepartmental Committee on Police. Secret.
1. The 22-page report is not printed. (Ibid.) Regarding NSAM No. 146, see footnote 3, Document 72.
2. In NSAM No. 177, dated August 7, President Kennedy approved all of the numbered recommendations below and put them into the form of a directive. (Department of State, S/S- NSC Files: Lot 70 D 265, Interdepartmental Committee on Police)
3. Document 68.
4. Frank Coffin was the AID representative.