178. Letter From the Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (Mann) to President Johnson1
Dear Mr. President:
As required by Section 103(b) of the Mutual Defense Assistance Control Act of 1951 (Battle Act),2 I am writing to advise you of certain shipments to the Sino-Soviet bloc of Control Act embargo items by countries receiving United States assistance and recommending to you that assistance to these countries be continued.
This report covers shipments regarding which information was received prior to June 1, 1965, and which have not been referred to in any previous Presidential Determinations under Section 103(b) of the Act. These shipments were as follows:
Belgium
Belgium exported to East Germany $11,000 worth of mono-crystalline silicon to use in the manufacture of power diodes to equip locomotives.
France
France exported to the USSR electronic tubes valued at $12,732 for use in television and telecommunication laboratories, and $32,400 worth [Page 508] of tubes for use as spares on television relay systems. France supplied Rumania $5,023 worth of molybdenum wire for use in remetallizing equipment, and Poland was supplied with electronic tubes worth $7,200 for use as spares on radio links already in operation. France shipped to Hungary $1,546 worth of teflon discs for use in the manufacture of pump couplings.
The Federal Republic of Germany
Germany exported to Bulgaria $338,653 worth of railway communications cable, all for use in electrification of the Bulgarian railway network. Germany also supplied Bulgaria with $205 worth of sodium azide for laboratory use at the State University of Sofia. Communist China was shipped a radio link system valued at $178,572 for radio and television broadcasting in Shanghai, $507 worth of boron carbide for rectifying operations on carbide-tipped tools, and $337 worth of boron carbide for grinding and lapping. German shipments to Czechoslovakia consisted of $225 worth of potassium fluoroborate for use as a melting agent in the smelting of aluminum, $213 worth of sodium nitride for analytical work at technical institutes, $2,703 worth of boron carbide and boron carbide paste for grinding and lapping, service chests valued at $22,500 for electronic computers supplied earlier, and magnetic tape analogue storage equipment valued at $2,794 for use with a digital computer. East Germany was shipped bolometers valued at $364 for use with a radiation receiver in a spectrometer at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. Hungary was shipped $263 worth of electronic tubes for use in therapeutic diathermy equipment in a hospital, $429 worth of fluoroboric acid for galvanizing purposes, and $307 worth of boron trichloride for use in organic synthesis at Budapest University. German shipments to Poland consisted of switchover sets valued at $2,709 for a radio relay system supplied earlier, and $1,900 worth of boron carbide paste for grinding purposes.
Italy
Italy exported to Albania $43 worth of uranyl acetate for use in chemical and biological studies in hospitals, and China was shipped $300 worth of lithium hydride for laboratory research. Italy exported to Hungary $670 worth of sodium boron hydride for laboratory research and $321 worth of lithium carbonate for use in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals. Poland was supplied with $8,100 worth of boron carbide for a metallurgical plant at Katowice.
Japan
Japan exported to Communist China $2,949 worth of molybdenum tube and bar for research and for use as electrodes in glass melting furnaces, [Page 509] $473 worth of niobium wire for use in research at the Metals Institute in Shanghai, and $1,058 worth of tantalum wire for medical purposes at Peking University and the China Medical College. The USSR was supplied by Japan with $1,090,036 worth of titanium tubes for use in the construction of an acetaldehyde plant. Czechoslovakia was supplied with forged steel inserting rolls valued at $8,820 for use in rolling steel strip.
The Netherlands
The Netherlands exported to Poland $3,779 worth of molybdenum foil for use in the production of high pressure gaseous discharge lamps, and $6,850 worth of molybdenum strip for use as lead-in conductors for quartz lamps. The Netherlands also shipped Poland tungsten strips valued at $6,500 for heating elements in small-part annealing furnaces, $2,800 worth of lithium ores for the production of ceramics, glazes and glass, $1,100 worth of electronic tubes for use in civilian radio and television transmitters, and $15,550 worth of tubes for installation in radio relay stations at Danzig, Warsaw, Katowice, Wroslaw and Krakow.
Portugal
Portugal shipped to the Soviet bloc from Mozambique tantalum ore valued at approximately $190,000.3
The United Kingdom
The United Kingdom exported to Bulgaria $26,824 worth of telephone cable for underground installation between Sofia and Dimitrovgrad, Yugoslavia. Communist China was shipped boron trichloride valued at $205 for general experimental use in colleges and institutes throughout the country, and silicon rectifier diodes valued at $305 for use in brushless alternator excitation research. The United Kingdom exported to Czechoslovakia a klystron and its amplifier circuit valued at $6,230 for use in the television transmitter in Prague. United Kingdom shipments to Hungary consisted of a matrix stack valued at $4,200 for use in a data logger in a Budapest thermal power plant, and coaxial cable worth $203 for installation at the Budapest reserve television station. Poland was shipped VHF signal generators valued at $2,234 for use in designing and testing radio-television component units, a magnetic film handler worth $14,300 for use in a digital computer supplied earlier to the Electrotechnical Institute in Warsaw, $3,903 worth of quartz crystals for use in carrier telephone and telegraph equipment, and thoriated tungsten wire valued at $4,679 for use in manufacturing lighting and [Page 510] radio tubes. Shipments to Rumania from the United Kingdom consisted of stellite rod valued at $24,324 for use in hard facing engine valves, $664 worth of cobalt powder for use as a binding agent for metal carbide powders, and titanium wire and strip valued at $6,222 for use on machinery in a factory manufacturing building materials. The United Kingdom shipped to the USSR video recording tape worth $14,420 for use on video recording equipment in the Moscow television center and airborne navigation equipment valued at $440,000 for installation on aircraft flying on scheduled airline routes between Moscow and Western European capitals.
Conclusions and Recommendations
All of the shipments listed above, except that by Portugal, were presented for consideration in the international security trade control body (COCOM) before export was authorized by the country making the shipment and were considered to be for specified civilian uses. All of the countries mentioned in this letter as having permitted exports of embargoed items have cooperated for over fourteen years in controlling the export of strategic commodities to the Soviet bloc. They have also made, and are continuing to make, important contributions to free world security programs, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
United States assistance to these nations is almost entirely in the form of cash sales of military equipment as authorized by Section 507(a) of the Foreign Assistance Act,4 the only other assistance being a military assistance program for Portugal, a small residual military assistance program for Japan, deliveries from small undelivered balances of prior year military assistance programs for Belgium, France, Italy, and the Netherlands, and long-term Export-Import Bank loans recently extended to Japan and Portugal. In the case of cash sales of military equipment, assistance provided by the United States is limited to concessional prices on some transactions; the United States also receives assistance through such sales, not only in the form of increased security but also because they ease our balance of payments problems.
In the light of these considerations, and having taken into account each of the statutory criteria set forth in the first proviso of Section 103(b) of the Mutual Defense Assistance Control Act of 1951, I recommend that the United States, in its own security interest, continue to provide aid to these countries.
The recommendations in this letter were developed by Assistant Secretary of State Anthony M. Solomon, in performance of the functions [Page 511] of the Administrator for the Mutual Defense Assistance Control Act, and are concurred in by the other interested agencies.5
Respectfully submitted,
- Source: Johnson Library, White House Central Files, C.F., F.O. 3–2, Jan-Mar 1966. No classification marking. This letter and a second letter and two proposed memoranda for the President’s signature, cited in footnotes 3 and 5 below, were sent under cover of a January 25 letter from Mann to the President.↩
- P.L. 82–213, approved on October 26, 1951. (65 Stat. 644)↩
- An attached letter from Mann to President Johnson, January 25, expanded on the circumstances of the Portugal tantalum ore shipment; not printed.↩
- P.L. 87–195, approved on September 4, 1961. (75 Stat. 424)↩
- Attached to the source text is an unsigned White House determination, in the form of an undated memorandum to Secretary Rusk and Mann, directing them to inform the six Congressional committees of this determination. Mann and Solomon approved the recommendation and Robert B. Wright, Director of the Office of East-West Trade, Department of State; Alvin Friedman, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs; Alexander B. Trowbridge, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Domestic and International Business; and Robert S. Smith, Acting Assistant Administrator for Program, Agency for International Development, concurred. Also attached to the source text is a signed Presidential Determination, in the form of a February 10 memorandum from President Johnson to Secretary Rusk and Mann.↩