Memorandum from Robert N. Golding to W. C. Foster with Attached Draft Letter to Senator Pat McCarran

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e STANDARD FORM NO. 64 1/4 Office Memorandum UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT TO : Mr. Wm. C. Foster, Administrator DATE: January 4, 1951 FROM : Robert N. Golding MM Special Asst. for/East-West Trade Affairs SUBJECT: Reply to Letter from Senator McCarran - Comments upon his Letter to Secretary Sawyer. The attached proposed reply is being circulated in draft form to Messrs. Bissell, Porter, Joyce and Cooley who are also being sent a summary of the letter of Senator McCarran to Secretary Sawyer. Inasmuch as Secretary Sawyer is requested to produce detailed information and statistics and the ECA Administrator is asked only for any comments which he might feel appropriate, it occurred to me that here was an opportunity to present some basic thinking without having the presentation cluttered up with long explanations of specific details such as the 1947 sale of jet engines. The things in this letter ought to be said, and will have to be said sooner or later, before Congressional committees. The question involved here is, Should they be said now? The admonition in the second paragraph is really directed to the Department of Commerce, but it is directed to me as a more politic way of getting the idea across. The proposed letter is in itself an operation and the objective which it seeks is to get people to realize that the problem cannot be solved by any narrow inflexible approach. The statistics on page 5 were compiled by the Security and Investigation Division, the sources being OSR Finance and Trade Division, OEEC and customs statistics of various countries. They were not classified by OSR and in any event I don't see why they should not be made public. Before being sent out in final form, the proposed letter to Senator McCarran should be cleared with the State Department, but prior to that the final form should be determined upon within ECA. Attachment RnG CC: Mr. Bissell Mr. Porter avery scholars dremment Mr. Joyce I that then all some Mr. Cooley changes which will for the ate and outluins await clearing frace P