MUTUAL SECURITY ACT OF 1953 (H.R. 5710, 83d Cong., 1st Sess.) MONDAY, JUNE 15, 1953 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, The committee met in executive session at 10:10 a.m., Hon. Robert B. Chiperfield (chairman) presiding. Chairman CHIPERFIELD. H.R. 5710, a bill to amend further the Mutual Security Act of 1951, as amended, and for other purposes. The committee will come to order. Ambassador Hughes, we are very happy to have you here. I do not know whether you have a statement or if you just wanted to come in to get acquainted. STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN C. HUGHES, U.S. PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE ON THE NORTH ATLANTIC COUNCIL Ambassador HUGHES. My main purpose was to come to pay my respects. I trust very much that during my tour of duty a number of members of the committee will come over because I know with what keen interest they follow these activities. Chairman CHIPERFIELD. Tell us a little bit about what you have been doing on the committee and your report. REPORT OF THE JACKSON COMMITTEE Ambassador HUGHES. Do you mean in my Jackson committee? Ambassador HUGHES. We completed that about 10 days ago. Mr. William Jackson,' as you know, is the chairman of that committee. The report, I think, will be ready for submission to the President either at the end of this week or the first of next week. Mrs. BOLTON. That was appointed to do what? Ambassador HUGHES. That was appointed by the President and called the President's Committee on International Information Activities. The main purpose of the committee was to study all of the facilities of the various agencies and departments of the Government in an effort to recommend a coordinated effort for what we use, for want of a better word, in political warfare. Obviously the terms 1 William Jackson at the time was Director of the U.S. Information Agency. "psychological warfare," "political warfare," "cold war," certainly all of them are distinct misnomers when you refer to such areas as the Middle East, South America, certain parts of the Far East, and so forth. That report will be turned in, Mrs. Bolton, and involves, frankly, a study of all means available to various agencies, including both the covert as well as overt activities. We will turn them in to the President. What disposition he wants to make of the parts of it, I do not know. Mrs. BOLTON. Has it public dissemination? Ambassador HUGHES. No; the report itself, Mrs. Bolton, I do not believe could, because we had recourse to many of the NSC [National Security Council] papers and so forth. MEMBERSHIP OF THE JACKSON COMMITTEE Chairman CHIPERFIELD. It was a wonderful committee and had some wonderful members. Ambassador HUGHES. I know Mr. William Jackson, the chairman of the committee, commented on this, and it was mentioned by all members of the committee. We had a staff detail to use during the life of the committee which we drew from the various agencies of the Government, from State, CIA [Central Intelligence Agency], Defense, MSA [Mutual Security Agency], and so forth. Twelve or fourteen were detailed for permanent duty during our life, and I must say that I have never seen a more capable group of young men. Chairman CHIPERFIELD. That is why we get along in this committee, we have a capable staff and they work their heads off to get us information. I know what you are talking about. Ambassador HUGHES. I am now, as you know, sir, going on this new job as a successor on the North Atlantic Council to Mr. Draper, who resigned.' Of course, my terms of reference are somewhat different from his. I realize that it is a very difficult job and it is one that is going to involve a certain number of changes. One of the main reasons I wanted to have the opportunity to come and pay my respects to this committee is in the hope that from time to time, when you have an occasion to make trips for one reason or another, that I may have the benefit of your visits and counsel and advice at my post, itself. Chairman CHIPERFIELD. Thank you very much. Would you mind answering questions if anyone cares to ask you questions? Ambassador HUGHES. To the best of my ability I will be glad to. I may say I do not talk much about my job because I have gone on the theory that a small amount of performance is a great deal better than a lot of promises. In this particular assignment I have no background of performance that I can talk about, since I am just going over this week. 2 William H. Draper had been U.S. Special Representative in Europe, Economic Cooperation Administration, and at the time was U.S. Representative on the North Atlantic Council which is comprised of ministerial-level officials and is the main civilian political arm of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Ambassador Draper resigned his NATO position effective June 30, 1953. REORGANIZATION AND MODIFICATION OF THE OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE, EUROPE Mr. VORYS. Mr. Hughes, I think it might be of advantage if you would state a little more fully to the committee the situation as to the elimination of the SRE-Special Representative, Europe-and so forth, involved in the Executive orders and reorganization plans.3 Our subcommittee had that explained to us, but the full committee has not. If you could go into that and say something about your own background for that service, I am sure the committee would be interested. Ambassador HUGHES. I will be glad to, Mr. Vorys. Perhaps if I may, the best way to reply to that would be to indicate the essential difference, the basic difference, between the terms of reference under which Mr. Draper is SRE operative and my terms of reference, if that is agreeable. Mr. Draper, under orders which were issued, I think it was in April 1952, went over there as the Special Representative, Europe, and in this capacity was responsible and reported under the terms of reference he had directly to the President, directly to the Secretary of State, to the Secretary of Defense, to the Director of Mutual Security, and to the Secretary of the Treasury. In other words, he had a direct approach in five ways. I think that was deemed by the Secretary of State and others who discussed this as being something which could be a little better coordinated. In any event, my terms of reference will mean that I will operate, or my mission will operate, as a coordinated and integrated setup, but I will report through the Secretary of State. I will have under me a political representative from the State Department, one from Defense, one from MSA, and one from the Treasury. In various operational matters they will report through me to their respective heads. That will enable us to provide a more integrated and more coordinated setup. I think it is particularly important in view of the fact that, for example, in such defense activities as are involved in infrastructure, offshore procurement, and so forth and so on, they do have a very definite political connotation and political value. I think that MSA, Defense, and the political activities of foreign policy can well be coordinated together and should so be. There is a rather substantial setup there in the way of personnel. I had discussed this with the heads of the various departments who will have representatives there with me-And may I say parenthetically that as a representative of the United States on the North Atlantic Council and also representative on the ministerial level of the OEEC (Organization for European Economic Cooperation), I have the rank of ambassador. That has been changed somewhat in the respect that my deputy and the MSA man will have the rank of minister, In other words, that has been changed because in the previous terms of reference under the SRE, Mr. Draper had the rank of Mr. Vorys is here referring to Executive Order No. 10458 of June 1, 1953, which specified changes in the administration of U.S. foreign aid programs and to Reorganiza. tion Plan No. 7 of 1953 (see footnote 6 of the June 9, 1953 session in this volume). ambassador, his deputy had the rank of ambassador, and there were one or two others. I have not followed that in great detail. Mr. VORYS. It is very difficult to follow, I am sure. Ambassador HUGHES. Some important improvements will doubtless come about. I talked at great length with Governor Stassen, Mr. Rand, and people in the Defense Department. I have suggested that this should be done on a functional basis rather than just a numerical cut here and there and so forth and so on. There are certain activities that you have in your reorganization plans that you have before you which will be transferred or reduced on account of the change in the orientation of it. I do not believe in prejudging something before I have a chance to really study it on the spot, but you have under the MSA, the productive section, a sizable number of people helping out both in the agricultural aspects and the industrial aspect. I think that the feeling is that eventually, with our continued guidance, it should be transferred to some of these international organizations and not be continued as a strictly American setup. That I cannot say should be done tomorrow or next fall, but I think the orientation should be in that direction. There is an information section in the present SRE which doubtless will be modified perhaps in size, but in any event eventually transferred out of that SRE setup into such organization as your committee and others recommend. BACKGROUND OF AMBASSADOR HUGHES Mr. VORYS. I wonder if you could give us something of your background and experience along this line, Mr. Hughes? Ambassador Hughes. Do you mean a sort of rough biography of those things applicable to this thing? Mr. VORYS. I think it would be well for the committee to have it, not only for those who are present, but those who come in and have to look at the written record. Ambassador HUGHES. I am a graduate of Princeton University, class of 1914. Immediately after college, I started in business in New York City. That was a very sketchy experience at first, I must say, because I not only went into the First World War in 1917, but even before that, I spent time as a trooper 6 months on the Texas border. That was in 1916, so I would not say that my early business experience qualified me for anything. I remained in the service until late in 1919, having come back in September 1919 with General Pershing. He made me a junior aidede-camp just after the St. Mihiel activity and before the MeuseArgonne offensive. After I got out of the army at the end of 1919, I went into business in New York. While I was in business there, several men and myself incorporated a company, in the first part of 1923, of which I was originally the treasurer and since 1946 have become the president. It is a company which represents various textile mills in New England Gen. John J. Pershing (1860–1948), U.S. Army, in September 1919 was made General of the Armies, a rank previously held only by George Washington. General Pershing had commanded the U.S. Expeditionary Forces in Europe during World War I. |