Department of State Committee Files, Lot 122, Box 15559
Statement of the History and Work of the Departmental Dollar Gap Working Group (DDG)1
Established: March 2, 1950 by notification memo from E, A and S/S.
Chairman: Assistant Secretary Thorp (E).
Areas Represented: E, ITP, OFD, TRC, TCA, EUR, FE, ARA, NEA, GER, UNA, P, H, R, L, A.2
Terms of Reference: “To consider and prepare State Department positions concerning the over-all question of adjusting the balance of payments of the United States.”
Secretariat: S/S–S.
Activity: Held approximately 10 meetings since March 2; now inactive.
Description of Work: The DDG was originally established to backstop State’s participants in the interdepartmental machinery which Mr. Gray was expected to set up to work on his “dollar gap” report to the President. Mr. Gray, however, set up no such machinery [Page 843] and after several months made up a list of topics on which he requested studies be prepared by the appropriate Executive agencies.3
At first State’s studies were sent directly and informally to Mr. Gray. This resulted in inadequate coordination and in July the dormant DDG was specified as the clearance mechanism within the Department for all past and future papers written for Mr. Gray. From July to September the group considered, revised and cleared some fifteen studies on topics in foreign economic policy assigned to State, (subsequently sent to Mr. Gray) as well as a number of studies prepared in other agencies and sent to State by Mr. Gray for departmental comment.4
From September to November the group reviewed the three successive versions of Mr. Gray’s Report to the President on Foreign Economic Policies and acted as the focal point for receiving and considering departmental comments on those drafts.5
Evaluation of Effectiveness: Although at first not used, the Group effectively filled an important need.
Further Staff Action Required: The Gray Report has just been published in its final form; E has suggested that the Working Group be put “on ice” pending further information on what the next steps will be vis-à-vis the Gray Report in the interdepartmental arena.6
S/S–S will, after a reasonable period, take steps either to reactivate or terminate the Working Group.7
- This statement was presumably prepared in the Executive Secretariat of the Department of State.↩
- The last seven offices designated here were not part of the regular membership of the DDG. They received all documentation and notices of meetings and attended meetings where matters of importance to their offices were discussed.↩
- Documentation in the DDG files (Lot 122, Box 15559) indicates clearly the concern of the Department of State at these developments, or lack thereof. There was a further problem: The Department’s informal but strong feeling was that the Gray group was concerning itself with much more than the dollar gap Question.↩
- These studies were prepared mainly in or under the guidance of the Department of State. The Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) was the originator of certain of the papers. Whether taken separately or collectively, the papers compiled in this DDG operation constitute a valuable reference source for the whole range of foreign economic policy at this time. For a list of the papers, see editorial note, infra.↩
- The Department of State performed a very active role in this review process. The review documentation is found in the DDG file (Lot 122, Box 15559).↩
- The Report to the President on Foreign Economic Policies (“the Gordon Gray report”) was released to the public on November 10, 1950, with a Statement by the President. The Report consisted of 99 pages of text and a statistical and tabular appendix of 30 pages. (Washington, Government Printing Office, December 1950.)↩
- The Departmental Dollar Gap Group was dissolved as of December 15, 1950.↩