Memorandum of Telephone Conversation with Secretary of State Dean Acheson and Paul Hoffman

DECLASSIFIED E. O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and S(D) or (E) 188 Dept. of State letter, 628 CONFIDENTIAL NLT He NARS Date4.26.76 / July 12,1949 MEMORANDUM OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION ARGHIVES 3. SERVICE^ RECORDS NATIONAL AMD : Participants: Mr. Paul Hoffman Secretary Acheson The Secretary spoke to Mr. Hoffman this afternoon with regard to the amendments to the ECA legislation discussed in my memorandum of today. The Secretary indicated tha+ he considered the matter with others in the Department and concluded that we were in agreement with Mr. Hoffman in his opposition to the first amendment relative to illustrative allocations on cotton and tobacco. Mr. Hoffman said this would put ECA out of business and the Secretary agreed. In so far as the second amendment regarding Spain is concerned, the Secretary indicated that we would be against any action forcing OEEC to accept Spain. He said that we were not sure exactly what would be done by the amendment since we had been unable to obtain the exact wording proposed by Senator McCarron. In our opinion, however, this would be putting pressure on the OEEC nations to accept Spain as a member of the "club". The Secretary said that apart from the language, the effect was to cut the ECA appropriation by $50 million by setting the amount aside for Spain. This, Mr. Acheson said, would be most unfortunate. Furthermore, it is the Department's opinion that any bilateral financial assistance extended to Spain by the US Government should be provided through the Export-Import Bank. Mr. Hoffman said that he had seen the President who was in agreement on the desirability of opposing the two amendments. He said that he had also talked to certain of the Congressional leaders, including Senators Connally, Vandenberg, Bridges and others, in an effort to line up opposition to the amendments. Mr. Hoffman desired that the State Department assist in any way possible in opposing these two amendments. The Secretary agreed that we would do what we could. Mr. Hoffman called back a few minutes later and asked the CONFIDENTIAL