Memorandum from Frederick Lawton to President Harry S. Truman

TOP SECRET EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT BUREAU OF THE BUDGET DECLASSIFIED WASHINGTON 25, D.C. E.O. 12065 mr. III OME LTR. 5-3-79 BYNET-He NARS, Date 12.3.79 JAN 6 - 1951 MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT Subject: Appointment of NATO Production Coordinator In accordance with your instructions, we have looked into this matter. As we informed Mr. Dawson today, it is desirable to move forward promptly with the nomination of an American for appointment to this post as recommended to you by General Marshall. The present organizational arrangements, both within the U. S. Government and at the international level for the establishment of the NATO Production Board, under which the Production Coordinator will work, are in an early and incomplete state of development. In the opinion of this office and of the Office of Defense Mobilization the existing scope and terms of reference of the Production Board are too narrow. The scope of the Board's work will have to be broadened to provide an organizational setting for the production control functions which will have to be organized within and among the NATO countries, as well as to hold the interest and capabilities of the kind of man which has been suggested as Production Coordinator to serve under the Board. Another problem which exists is the outstanding instruction defining the Department of Defense and the Munitions Board as the communications channel to the American representative on the NATO Defense Production Board. This arrangement does not adequately recognize the responsibilities placed in the Director of Defense Production and the Director of Defense Mobilization. However, rather than attempting to make an abrupt change in the existing instructions to Mr. Batt, it is our opinion that his present instructions can be supplemented to overcome this deficiency when the plans of the Defense Mobilizer for organization in this area are more fully developed. In the most general terms, the problem as we now see it is that the Defense Production Board will have to deal rather broadly with the question of the policies in the NATO countries regarding the use of materials on a basis comparable to those of our own production authority. Since at the moment most of Mr. Batt's counterparts on the NATO Defense Production Board are drawn from the defense ministries of the countries involved, neither they nor the Board itself are in a position to deal broadly with the production problem. Therefore, a process of re- orienting the Board to the enlarged concept will be required. In TOP SEGRET