51. Memorandum From the Assistant Secretary of State for Administration (Crockett) to the Deputy Under Secretary of State for Administration (Jones)1

SUBJECT

  • Bureau of the Budget Report on State Department Organization for Foreign Economic Affairs

Attached is a preliminary analysis of the Report by the Bureau of the Budget Study Team on State Department Organization for Foreign Economic Affairs.2 The analysis is intended to be no more than a starting point for intensive consideration of the aspects of the Report. Consideration will be most effective if undertaken with the active participation of the new Assistant Secretary for Economic Affairs, when he is named.3

In particular his concepts of the total goals and purpose of E, of E’s relationships to the regional bureaus and other parts of the Department, and of the internal organization of E may give new insights into the problem of how we may improve our organization for foreign economic activities. The Department, it should be noted, has been active during the period since the Bureau of the Budget team completed its examination. The Secretary’s reorganization of last December began establishment of a sound organizational pattern aimed at clarifying lines of authority and achieving more effective coordination of functional responsibilities. This constituted an important step upon which future changes should be predicated. We have also made some changes that anticipated the Budget Bureau’s recommendations. For example, the Department has integrated in AID, economic development responsibilities previously assigned to E. More recently, the Under Secretary has directed that the Foreign Economic Advisory Staff be moved from his immediate office to E.

In addition, current steps to establish back-to-back space arrangements for related functions in the geographic bureaus for Latin American activities suggest directions in which the over-all structure of [Page 98] the Department may develop. Whether these arrangements are limited to physical location or eventually become organizational in nature, their intent is clearly to improve coordination in carrying out inter-related functions affecting the political, economic and other content of United States foreign affairs. We are, thus, in the process of feeling our way along certain paths. Our readiness and ability to clarify the ultimate direction these paths will take, will in large measure determine the effectiveness of the use we make of this study.

  1. Source: National Archives and Records Administration, RG 59, Management Staff Files: Lot 69 D 434, Miscellaneous Subject Files, 1960–1967, State Department Organization for Foreign Economic Affairs, 1962. No classification marking. Drafted by Gladys P. Rogers in the Office of Management (OM) on March 21.
  2. Dated March 1962; attached but not printed.
  3. G. Griffith Johnson was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs on May 12, succeeding Edwin M. Martin.