MUTUAL SECURITY PROGRAM

This is part 13 of the government pamphlet, "OUR FOREIGN POLICY 1952":

MUTUAL SECURITY PROGRAM


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ANY of the programs we have been discussing in the preceding pages – such as economic assistance and Point Four – are now included in the Mutual Security Program.

The Mutual Security Program combines, under cen-tral direction, the various foreign-assistance programs, including military and economic aid. Its aim is to create the strength necessary to prevent aggression. The Program is a combined effort of the free nations, recognizing that the security of the United States de-pends on strengthening and developing the free world.

Much of the aid provided under the Mutual Security Program goes for military items, a continuation of the Mutual Defense Assistance Program. In some cases this means finished armaments. In others it means raw materials to enable other countries to produce arms in their own plants.

In the world today, however, there is no sharp line between military and economic strength. Each builds upon the other. Military aid must be accompanied, in many cases, by economic aid if real defense strength is to be attained.

Under the Marshall Plan, the European economic system had reached almost complete recovery when the attack on Korea created a new situation. With the in-vasion of the Republic of Korea, Western Europe was faced with economic demands that it could not meet

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without assistance. Economic aid to Western Europe under the Mutual Security Program is, therefore, tai-lored to meet the emergency. It provides necessary equipment and materials to prevent bottlenecks. By this aid Europe is enabled to expand production and meet its responsibilities, without falling into run-away inflation that would open the way to communist sub-version.

Other free nations also receive economic aid, where it will contribute to the security of the United States and other nations of the free world. The United States makes a separate agreement with each country receiving aid. Each agreement reflects what the needs of that country are, what it can do for itself, and what is neces-sary in the way of help from the United States. Self-help and mutual aid are the principles upon which each agreement is based.

In presenting the Mutual Security Program to the Congress President Truman said :

"Our country has greater economic strength and larger potential military power than any other nation on earth. But we do not and should not stand alone. We cannot maintain our civilization, if the rest of the world is split up, subjugated, and organized against us by the Kremlin."

The Mutual Security Program means that the United States works with the rest of the free world in a unified defense effort. It is helping to build the military and economic power that will make impossible the com-munist dream of world conquest.

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