793.5/11–1050
Memorandum by the Deputy Director, Mutual Defense Assistance, Department of State (Ohly), to the Director of the Office of Military Assistance, Department of Defense (Scott)
Subject: Political Criteria Applicable to U.S. Reimbursable Aid to Chinese Nationalists Under Section 408(e) of the MDAA, as Amended.
Reference is made to your memorandum of November 16, 1950,1 calling the attention of this office to a possible conflict between our recommendations to the Department of Defense regarding political criteria applicable to reimbursable aid to the Chinese Government and those applicable to grant aid to the same Government.
In memoranda dated November 10 and 13, 1950,2 on the subject of Chinese requests for reimbursable aid, I indicated that certain political factors, set forth in my memorandum dated September 15, 1950, to you should be kept in mind in acting on reimbursable aid requests from the Chinese Government. Included in my September 15, 1950 memorandum was the statement that any program of grant aid should concern itself primarily with the filling of known important deficiencies in spare parts, ammunition, and maintenance equipment or services. Your memorandum of November 16, 1950, above cited, states that this reference is in apparent conflict with the recommendation contained in the letter of July 24, 1950,3 from the Secretary of State to the Secretary of Defense that the Chinese be authorized to purchase any matériel under United States control, including tanks and jet aircraft. Your memorandum of November 16, 1950 adds that the Department of Defense is therefore assuming that the reference to my September 15 memorandum does not apply.
That part of my September 15 memorandum concerning a limitation of aid to spare parts, ammunition and maintenance spares is of course subject to modification in the light of the facts contained in the Fox Report, as indicated in my memoranda dated November 10 and November 13 above cited.
The Department of State is of the opinion that the following main points made in the September 15 memorandum also apply in general to reimbursable aid to the Chinese Government.
- (1)
- Under existing policy directives, United States assistance should be designed to contribute to the defense of Taiwan, and,
- (2)
- Chinese requests should be considered in light of the urgency of need and a prior judgment in each case that the Chinese military establishment has the intention and capacity to utilize effectively any equipment furnished for the defense of Taiwan.
The Department of State recognizes that each future request for military assistance by the Chinese Nationalist Government will have to be considered on its own merits and in light of the then existing factors bearing on the situation.