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

672 329-a CONFIDENTIAL December 16, 1949 ARCHIVES 8. AND TRUMAN MEMORANDUM OF TELEPHONE CONVERSATION 'NATIONAL RECORDS SERVICE Participants: Mr. Paul Hoffman Secretary Acheson Mr. Hoffman called me today just before lunch and said that he was going to get into a fight and he hoped that I would back him because he was afraid he would not be able to win it unless he had the Depart- ment's backing. He said that the ECA does not yet have the final figures from the countries abroad so that they cannot know precisely what their final appropriation for the coming fiscal year should be. But they have made calculations and have come up with the figure which he thinks is an underestimate and will put a squeeze on the foreign countries. That, he said, he thought was not undesirable. His figure, he thought, was $3,170,000,000. The Budget proposes to cut this to $2,900,000,000. The main point, which he reiterated several times, was that if they went in with this figure to the Congress there would be no chance whatever of getting it raised as might be the case with other agencies which have a vote appeal. He said that if, after they get their final figures in and they were carefully checked, it was found that further reductions in his original figure could be made, he would be willing to have that done. But, until he was convinced that the $3,170,000,000 was in excess of what was actually needed, he was extremely anxious--and would fight to the last ditch- not to have a "meat ax" applied to the figure. Hoffman then said that on one point he was taking a position which he thought was somewhat contrary to the State Department--and that was that he would not want the ECA appropriation loaded with military aid. DECLASSIFIED E. O. 11652, Sec. 3(E) and 5(D) or (E) Dept. of State letter, Aig-3.1973 3-23-75 CBM IDENTIAL By NLT- HC ; NARS Date 4.29.76