April 13, 1949
After luncheon today Secretary Snyder mentioned to me that he was worried about a matter which he understood the State Department was bringing up in the NAC tomorrow. I told him I would look into it and call him back.
After meeting with Messrs. Webb, Thorp, Nitze and Knapp, I called Secretary Snyder back and said that the matter included two things which were separate. First was the question of recommending an increase in the capital authorization of the Export-Import Bank on account of South America, which authorization might or might not be used. This grew out of a statement made by Secretary Marshall at Bogotá.
The other question to come up was in connection with the Point 4 program. The President had stressed in speaking of the program the necessity of interesting private capital which could go into underdeveloped countries. The question of how to get such capital - whether by obtaining sufficient security so that the capital would find its way to these areas or by some kind of government guarantee of the exchange risk, etc. - was referred to the NAC since the State Department is not equipped to deal with it alone. It is therefore the staff of the NAC which is proposing a recommendation tomorrow and not the State Department alone.
With reference to our action on this, I said that the papers were only finished today and had not been discussed with me before lunch. I therefore had had no time to think about the matter and since Secretary Snyder was disturbed about it, I thought the best course would be for the State Department representatives to try not to have the NAC meeting make any final decision. They should ask that the matter be explored further, particularly with reference to any alternatives.
I suggested to Mr. Snyder that perhaps he and the President might talk about the matter, so that we could find out whether the President really wanted something like a guarantee developed. If he does not want such a guarantee the matter should be stopped. If he does think it necessary it could then be sent back to the NAC.
I assured Mr. Snyder that I had no intention of endorsing a recommendation to increase the lending authority of the Export-Import Bank. Mr. Snyder expressed relief at the course suggested and thought that it would be helpful if the State Department representatives would have the NAC meeting simply discuss the matter informally and not have it arrive at any decision.
Mr. Snyder said that he had understood that the matter was being rather strongly pushed by the State Department which thought that the President was pushing them. I said that I thought that was true - that the State Department people had the impression that the people at the White House and the Budget Bureau had thought that they were not proceeding vigorously enough with Point 4. Mr. Snyder said that that was the opposite impression from the one he had gained from talks with the President. He thought that the President did not feel that we needed to ask for any legislation at this session of the Congress and that the President would be satisfied if the matter of implementing Point 4 were thoroughly explored.
I said that in my own conversations with the President I had not been given any reason to think he was dissatisfied with the progress and was of the very strong opinion that the NAC should not make a recommendation to the President until they were sure that the President wants such a recommendation made to him.
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