Letter to the President of the Senate and to the Speaker of the House of Representatives Transmitting the Final Report of the President's Committee To Study the U.S. Military Assistance Program.

Dear Mr. :

I transmit herewith for the consideration of the Congress the Final Report of the President's Committee to Study the United States Military Assistance Program, with the several studies which are Annexes thereto.

Together with the Committee's three earlier Reports, of March 17, June 3 and July 13, which I have previously sent to the Congress, this Report and the annexed studies provide us with an extremely valuable analysis of the Mutual Security Program.

Over a period of nine months, this group of eminent citizens has made the completely independent, objective, and non-partisan analysis for which I asked in appointing the Committee. This penetrating examination will, I believe, furnish invaluable guidelines, both to the Congress and the Executive Branch, for these programs which are of such critical importance to the defense and foreign policy of the United States.

The members of the Committee have given many months of careful study to these problems and have made a collective personal appraisal, based on their own experience in activities closely related to the program and on recent visits to the areas receiving assistance.

I call your special attention to the comments of the Committee concerning the dangerously low level of appropriations authorized for the Military Assistance Program for fiscal 1960. I agree with their analysis, and, as indicated in my letter to you of April 29, this fall I shall review the effect on the program of the final Congressional enactment for fiscal 1960. Following that review, I will make appropriate recommendations to the Congress.

The basic concepts of the Committee's plan for reorganizing the administration of the Military Assistance Program, embodied in its second Interim Report, were approved by me, and I am gratified that the Congress has already taken legislative measures toward putting some of these recommendations into effect. Work is under way on implementing by executive action other recommendations of this Report.

The present Report, like the Third Report which dealt with economic assistance and its administration, covers fields so extensive as to require correspondingly extended consideration. I have submitted copies of this Report to the Executive Agencies concerned, and shall later communicate with the Congress concerning recommendations requiring legislation which are embodied in both the Third and Final Reports.

Sincerely,

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER