DIRKSEN AND DOUGLAS AMENDMENTS TO THE MUTUALSECURITY ACT OF 1954.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01731R000100020081-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 1, 2002
• Sequence Number: 81
• Publication Date: July 10, 1956
• Content Type: MF

Approved r Release 2006/11/05: CIA-RDP80RO1731 R000100020081-0
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.ace
MEMORANDUM FOR: The Director
ER 8 -4448
10 July 1956
Dirksen and Douglas Amendments to the
Mutual Security Act of 1954.
This memorandum is for information only.
1. You will recall that the Mutual Security bill, as passed
by the Senate, contained both the Dirks en. and Douglas amendments
relating to the encouragement of the hopes and, aspirations of
peoples "enslaved by communis cn. ' The Dirkeen amendment
authorized the appropriation of $ S, 000, 000 to be used "through
programs of information, relief, exchange of persona, education,
resettlement and grants to private non-profit organizations.
The Dquglas amendment authorized the appropriation of $20, 000, 000
without specifying the types of programs.
2. Both of these amendments were stricken in Conference,
and the bill which has now passed the House and the Senate and has
been sent to the President for signature contains no special authori-
zation of funds for this purpose. It does, however, contain the
following new sub-section which relates to the use of funds already
available to the President under the Kersten amendment:
"(c) It is the purpose of this Act to advance the cause
of freedom. The Congress joins with the President of the
United States in proclaiming the hope that the peoples who
have been subjected to the captivity of c unist despotism
shall age, enjoy the right of self-determination within a
framework which will sustain the peace; that they shall again
have the right to choose the form of government under which
they will live, and that sovereign rights of self-government
shall be restored to them, all in accordance with the pledge
of the Atlantic Charter. Funds available under this section
may be used for programs of information, relief, exchange
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of persons, education, and resettlement, to encourage the
hopes and aspirations of peoples who bave been enslaved
by communism.
3. The first sentence of this sub-section was taken verbatim
from a statement of policy which the President had proposed to the
Congress in 1953. The second sentence follows somewhat the pattern
of the Dirksen amendment, except that the reference to "grants to
private non-profit organixati+nes" has been eliminated. I am informed
that this deletion*" intentiq. Legislative history has therefore
been established which would preclude, or at least discourage. the
use of l(ersten amendment funds for that purpose. The net result,
insofar as the possible use of Mutual Security funds for grants to
private organizations is concerned, is that everyone would have been
better off if the Dirksen and Douglas amendments bad never been
proposed.
Norman S. Paul
.Legislature Counsel
IG:NSP:fm
Distribution:
Orig & 1 - Add
2 - Leg. Counsel
C-XM-Lti4
. i.2 pcy .CG