TO THE CONDUCT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP58-00597A000100070120-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 3, 2003
• Sequence Number: 120
• Publication Date: June 1, 1953
• Content Type: OPEN

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83n CONGRESS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 5 DOCUMENT
1st Session No. 156
MESSAGE
THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
JUNE 1, 1953.-Referred to the Committee on Government Operations and
ordered to be printed
To the Congress of the United States:
The history of recent decades has brought a profound and irrevo-
cable change in the role of our Nation in world affairs. We have
assumed a position of leadership among the free nations of the world
in our united quest of a just and lasting peace. No national ambition,
no selfish desire, but the sheer force of circumstance-the compelling
need of freedom's cause-has brought us to this position and this
responsibility.
To meet this responsibility, our Nation today is dedicated to
international action in concert with other nations-through the
United Nations and in regional arrangements with other nations for
collective security, for economic and social cooperation, designed to
foster a community of world law. We have come to know that
national security entails mutual security with other free nations.
And we have come to know that their freedom, in turn, depends
heavily upon our strength and the wisdom with which we use it.
To meet the challenge of this responsibility effectively, to convert
earnest intent into constructive fact, we must achieve the most
efficient and cohesive possible organization for the conduct of our
foreign affairs. Slackness, confusion, blurred authority, and clouded
responsibility-any of these can defeat the noblest purposes of any
foreign policy.
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Our organization for the conduct of foreign affairs has been built
upon a patchwork of statutes which needs careful restudy as a basis
for new legislation. The development of new legislation will take
time. By early next year we will be prepared, with appropriate con-
sultation with the Congress, to recommend such legislation. In the
meantime we must improve the present arrangements within the
framework of existing legislation.
To date the organization of the executive branch for foreign affairs
has been deficient in two major respects. First: There has been no
clear assignment of central responsibility for foreign policy below the
President. Second: A number of programs which implement our
foreign policy have been scattered within the executive branch rather
than being grouped together for the most efficient and economical
administration.
We must correct these deficiencies. The measures proposed are
directed toward that objective. The consideration of new legislation
will open up further reorganization possibilities.
First.-We are taking the necessary steps to confirm the historic
responsibility of the Department of State as the agency responsible
under the President for the development and control of foreign policy
and all relations with foreign governments. Not only must the
Department of State be given clear authority to provide guidance on
our foreign policies to all other agencies of the Federal Government; it
is equally important that each chief of diplomatic mission in each
foreign country provide effective coordination of, and foreign policy
direction with respect to, all United States Government activities
in the country.
Second.-We must bring together in a single organization foreign
assistance and related economic operations now dispersed among
several agencies of the executive branch.
Third.-We must provide a new, separate organization for the
international information programs now administered by the Depart-
ment of State and the Mutual Security Agency.
To achieve the organization I have outlined requires a series of
related actions. Accordingly, I am transmitting to the Congress
today, by the required statutory message in each instance, Reorganiza-
tion Plans Nos. 7 and 8 of 1953, under the Reorganization Act of 1949,
as amended. Those plans take many of the necessary steps. I am
making other changes by Executive order. I am, in addition, setting
forth in a letter addressed to department and agency heads, the
arrangements which will govern relationships among executive-branch
officials in the conduct of our international responsibilities.
Reorganization Plan No. 7 has as its major purpose the realinement
of our foreign assistance and related economic operations. It estab-
lishes a new Foreign Operations Administration and abolishes the
present Mutual Security Agency and certain offices. It centers in the
head of the new Administration the functions vested in the Mutual
Security Agency and the Director for Mutual Security, including the
Director's functions under the Mutual Defense Assistance Control
Act.
To centralize further the foreign assistance and related economic
responsibilities in the head of the new Foreign Operations Adminis-
tration, I am taking certain administrative actions. These include
the transfer from the Secretary of State to the Director of the Foreign
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Operations Administration four responsibilities: the administration
of the Act for International Development; assistance to private foreign
relief organizations; programs for aiding persons who have escaped
from Communist areas; and operating functions with respect to United
States participation in the United Nations technical assistance pro-
gram, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund,
the United Nations Korean Reconstruction Agency, and the Inter-
governmental Committee for European Migration. These adminis-
trative actions also include the delegation by the President to the
Director of the Foreign Operations Administration of appropriate
responsibilities respecting the Palestine refugee program.
The new Foreign Operations Administration will have as its direct
responsibility two major related assistance programs which previously
have been separately administered. Both the Technical Cooperation
Administration in the Department of State and the Mutual Security
Agency have administered technical assistance programs. At the very
least, this has meant some duplication in the performance of certain
common. functions, including the recruitment of technicians and the
formulation of general policies. It has made difficult the achievement
of a balanced prograxnin r of technical assistance on a worldwide basis.
The transfer of the I echnical Cooperation Administration is not
intended to modify the character of the United States technical co-
operation program as a long-range effort to cooperate with the govern-
ments and peoples of other countries in developing their economics
and raising their standards of living. The technical cooperation pro-
grain will be carried out solely in furtherance of the purposes of the
Net for International Development. The transfer of the functions
vested in the President by the Act for International Development
includes the prograns under that act administered by the Institute of
Inter-,A_merican Affairs.
The new Director of the. Foreign Operations Administration will
have the same responsibilities as his predecessor for continuous super-
vision, general direction and coordination of all foreign assistance
programs, including, the military assistance responsibilities vested in
the Secretary of Defense.
Reorganization FI'an No. 7 of 1953 provides for abolishing the offices
of special representatives in Europe and deputy special representatives
in Europe, as authorized by section 504 of the Mutual Security Act
of 1951, as amended. I am establishing a new United States Mission
to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and European regional
organizations. Thu chief of the mission will report to and receive
instructions from the Secretary of State. The mission will include
representatives of the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of the
Treasury, and the Director of the Foreign Operations Administration.
Reorganization Plan No. 8 establishes a new agency-the United
States Information Agency- for the conduct of our information pro-
grams. These include, with certain limited exceptions, four programs:
the information activities now administered by the International In-
formation Administration of the Department of State; the information
programs financed in connection with government in occupied areas;
the information program of the Mutual Security Agency ; and the
Technical Cooperation Administration information program. The
first three of these programs would be shifted by Reorganization Plan
No. 8, while the last would be reassigned by Executive order.
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Various arrangements have been provided in the past for the coordi-
nation of these programs, but the placing of them in a single agency
seems the one sound way to provide real unity and greater efficiency.
This action, moreover, brings under single management all the funds
to be expended on these foreign information activities.
These information activities must, of course, be subject to special
guidance and control in view of their direct relation to the conduct of
foreign affairs and national security policy. Therefore, Reorganiza-
tion Plan No. 8 specifies that the Secretary of State shall provide to
the Director of the new Agency on a current basis full guidance con-
cerning the foreign policy of the United States. The plan also speci-
fies, and I have amplified this in my letter to the department and
agency heads, that the Secretary of State shall control the content of a
program setting forth official United States' positions for use abroad.
The program will be clearly identified as such by an exclusive descrip-
tive label. I have likewise instructed that the new United States
Information Agency shall report to the President through the National
Security Council or as the President may otherwise direct.
In administering the information program in the. Department of
State, the Secretary of State has relied on various general statutes
authorizing and controlling administrative matters. To insure that
adequate authority may be vested in the new Director, Reorganiza-
tion Plan No. 8 provides that he may, in carrying out his functions,
exercise such administrative authorities of the Secretary of State and
and of certain other officers as the President may specify.
This is necessary because the legislation dealing with the informa-
tion programs does not contain administrative provisions. For ex-
ample, the Director of the new United States Information Agency will
need personnel authority. I, therefore, plan to authorize an independ-
ent personnel system for this Agency's foreign operations under
authority of the last subsection of section 2 of plan No. 8. This sys-
tem will be based on the provisions of the Foreign Service Act of 1946.
It will give authority to the Director to appoint personnel and take
such other personnel actions as are necessary, thereby relieving the
Secretary of State of responsibility with respect to personnel actions.
Such personnel would receive compensation, allowances, and other
benefits applicable to Foreign Service Reserve, Staff, and alien per-
sonnel. It is not planned to extend to the new Agency any authority
with respect to the appointment of Foreign Service officers.
While these arrangements will enable the new Agency to function
with reasonable effectiveness from the outset, I do not consider them
permanently suitable. There is need for a critical analysis of the
various systems of employment and compensation for United States
Government overseas civilian personnel. I am directing that this
entire matter be studied with a view toward recommending appro-
priate legislation.
While divesting the Department of State of the foreign information
programs, the reorganization plan does not transfer the responsibility
of that Department for the educational exchange programs authorized
by various acts of the Congress. Close coordination of our informa-
tion and educational exchange programs will, of course, be effected
by the Secretary of State and the Director of the United States
Information Agency.
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The Constitution of the United States places the duty upon the
President for the conduct of our foreign affairs. Reorganization
Plans Nos. 7 and 8 and the related Presidential actions are designed
to protect and strengthen the role of the Secretary of State as the
principal officer, under the President, in the field of foreign affairs.
In the last analysis, however, the ability of the Secretary of State to
discharge his responsibilities depends upon the backing accorded to
him by the President, including consultation with the Secretary on
the appointment and maintenance in office of the directors created
by these reorganization plans. I shall continue to exercise my powers
of appointment so that these offices are occupied only by men who
support and enjoy the full confidence of the Secretary of State.
I urge the Congress to give its full support to these reorganizations.
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER.
THE WHITE HOUSE, eJu'lne 1, 1953.
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