Office of the Historian

90. Memorandum From the Deputy Coordinator for Mutual Security (Bell) to the Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (Ball)0

Washington, February 8, 1961.

SUBJECT

  • Mr. Martin’s February 7 Memorandum on Multilateral Approach to Increased Foreign Aid1

I am in general agreement with the thesis that it is desirable to attempt at the highest political level to obtain a political decision on the [Page 198] part of European governments to engage in an increased economic aid effort to be related to a similar increased aid effort on our part. As I understand it, the Rostow notion envisages a possible dimension of an average of a billion dollars a year over the next four years with flexible phasing.

It seems to me, however, that it would be most unwise to mix efforts to extract such decisions from the Europeans with efforts to deal with the military problem. It is true enough that increased military and economic aid efforts come out of the same budgets but this is in itself a good reason not to deal with the two together. The most important consideration, however, seems to me to be the absence of a clear basis for delineating what the NATO military posture should be. Most people concerned with the subject have been agreed for a long time that the present plan (MC-70)2 particularly needs revision and I would think any effort to deal with burden sharing on military costs ought to come after, not before, a revision of the military plans.

Obviously also, the negotiations envisaged presume a decision yet to be made with regard to U.S. effort and a decision which can only be made in the context of other decisions regarding the handling of foreign aid in the 1962 budget.

John
  1. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 811.0040/2-861. Confidential.↩
  2. Document 89.↩
  3. Regarding MC#70, see in Foreign Relations, 1958–1960, vol. VII, Part 1, pp. 314–317.↩