Mutual Defense Assistance Act
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| Long title | An Act to promote the foreign policy and provide for the defense and general welfare of the United States by furnishing military assistance to foreign nations. |
|---|---|
| Nicknames | Mutual Defense Assistance Act of 1949 |
| Enacted by | the 81st United States Congress |
| Effective | October 6, 1949 |
| Citations | |
| Public law | 81-329 |
| Statutes at Large | 63 Stat. 714 |
| Codification | |
| Titles amended | 22 U.S.C.: Foreign Relations and Intercourse |
| U.S.C. sections created | 22 U.S.C. ch. 20 § 1571 et seq. |
| Legislative history | |
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The Mutual Defense Assistance Act was a United States Act of Congress signed by President Harry S. Truman on 6 October 1949.[1][2] For U.S. foreign policy, it was the first U.S. military foreign aid legislation of the Cold War era, and initially to Europe.[3] The Act followed Truman's signing of the Economic Cooperation Act (the Marshall Plan), on April 3, 1948, which provided non-military, economic reconstruction and development aid to Europe.
The 1949 Act was amended and reauthorized on July 26, 1950.[4] In 1951, the Economic Cooperation Act and Mutual Defense Assistance Act were succeeded by the Mutual Security Act, and its newly created independent agency, the Mutual Security Administration, to supervise all foreign aid programs, including both military assistance programs and non-military, economic assistance programs that bolstered the defense capability of U.S. allies.[5]
About the same time, the Mutual Defense Assistance Control Act of 1951, also known or referred to as the Battle Act, (65 Stat. 644; 22 U.S.C. 1611 et seq.) was also passed; it banned U.S. assistance to countries doing business with the Soviet Union and was so-named after its sponsor, Representative
As the Cold War developed, these acts were part of the American policy of containment of communism. They importantly provided defense assistance to any ally that might be attacked by the Soviet Union or one of its allies, while other programs provided non-military economic assistance. In Asia, the programs expanded with the newly established Maoist People's Republic of China, and other areas, with the development of specific country missions, including ones in Austria (1947–1950), China (1946–1948), Ireland (1948–1951), and Trieste (1947–1952).[10]
Historical background: the World War II aftermath and the Cold War
In the euphoria of the end of World War II, western arsenals dropped down to a dangerous level of weakness and being worn-out. Public funds were, by priority, allocated to reconstruction. Even the U.S. arsenal showed obvious signs of shortages and decay.[note 1]
Military officials began calling for the introduction of a new defense legislation in 1947, arguing that depleted inventories of surplus World War II-vintage armaments, piecemeal planning of new armaments and restrictions on presidential authority threatened current and future efforts to arm allied nations. New legislation became a necessity by mid-1948 with the negotiation of the North Atlantic Treaty and the necessity to provide military aid to strengthen the connectional defenses, having in mind a global resistance to Communist expansion of the signatories.
Truman sent a first bill to Congress on 25 July 1949, the day he ratified the North Atlantic Treaty but congressional opposition forced submission of a new legislation, which specified the recipients and the amounts of assistance. Administration planners believed the MDAA's immediate effects would be to raise the morale of friendly nations and prove U.S. reliability and resolve to meet Communist worldwide threats. The MDAA also institutionalized the concept of specific military aid programs, a result ensured by adoption of similar legislation in 1950 and an increase in annual spending on military aid to $5.222 billion after the outbreak of the Korean War - the very first large scale test of the validity and practicability of the concept, if excepting the logistical support allowed to France during the First Indochina War.
Mutual Assistance Program
The Mutual Defense Assistance Act created the "Mutual Defense Assistance Program (MDAP[11])," which became an integral component in the federal government's policy of containment of Soviet expansion. This program differed from the World War II-era Lend-Lease program in that it never needed refunding from the country that benefits any military assistance. Between 1950 and 1967, $33.4 billion in arms and services and $3.3 billion worth of surplus weaponry were provided under the program.
Europe: NATO
On 4 April 1949, the foreign ministers from 12 countries signed the North Atlantic Treaty at the Departmental Auditorium in Washington D.C.: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Provision for enlargement was however given by Article 10 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which states that membership is open to any "European State in a position to further the principles of this Treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area".
- Belgium and the Netherlands
- Denmark and Norway
- France
- Massive support was negotiated with France from 1950 to 1954 when the Dien Bien Phu.[citation needed]
- American military support to France's rearmament lasted well into the 1950s,[NATO Military Command Structure.[citation needed] Although France was one of the very founding members of the Atlantic Alliance, President Charles de Gaulle withdrew France from NATO's military structure in 1966 in protest over American dominance of the Atlantic Alliance.
- On 4 April 1949, José Caeiro da Matta, Portuguese Minister for Foreign Affairs, signed the North Atlantic Treaty.
Asia
- On 8 September 1951, the United States and Japan signed the Mutual Security Treaty, which stationed U.S. troops on Japanese soil for the defense of Japan following the eruption of the Korean War. On 8 March 1954, both countries signed the Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement (activated on 1 May 1954), focusing on defense assistance. It allowed for the presence of U.S. armed forces in Japan for the purpose of peace and security while encouraging Japan to take on more responsibility for its own defense, rearming in a manner suited for defensive purposes.
During the
Non aligned countries
The MDAA caused both a great deal of friction with the non-aligned countries[citation needed] and opportunities to tighten geopolitical relations with the western free world and especially the United States.
- India refused to accept any American-imposed limits on its trade[]
- see references [12][13]
- Up to the early 1960s, the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) had a large arsenal of German equipment, planes and armor captured during the war, [citation needed] western equipment that had been donated by the USA and Great Britain during the war, as well as Soviet equipment.[citation needed]
- Despite M36 Jackson and M18 Hellcat tank-destroyers.[citation needed] After Stalin's death and the political and ideological pacification with Soviet Union, the Yugoslav People's Army later exclusively imported their equipment from the USSR when not sourcing it internally.
Notes
- Stug III) and France. However, World War II vintage equipment was in service everywhere.
- ^ Lasting from 1948, on the ground of an Inform-buro Resolution[clarification needed]
References
- ^ Peters, Gerhard; Woolley, John T. "Harry S. Truman: "Statement by the President Upon Signing the Mutual Defense Assistance Act.," October 6, 1949". The American Presidency Project. University of California - Santa Barbara.
- ^ Mutual Defense Assistance Act of 1949
- ^ Chester J. Pach Jr., Arming the Free World: The Origins of the United States Military Assistance Program, 1945-1950 University of North Carolina Press, 1991. 326 pg
- ^ "Mutual Defense Assistance Act of 1949, Amendment ~ P.L. 81-621" (PDF). 64 Stat. 373 ~ Senate Bill 3809. Legis★Works. July 26, 1950. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 22, 2015.
- ^ John Whiteclay Chambers II, Mutual Security Act The Oxford Companion to American Military History. 2000. Retrieved January 02, 2011
- ^ Battle, at Politicalgraveyard.com
- ^ Sect 2, 63 Stat.7 (1949), 50 USC App. § 2022 (1952). Cited in Paul H Silverstone, The Export Control Act of 1949: Extraterritorial Enforcement, p. 331 and ff
- ^ Mutual Defense Assistance Control Act of 1951 (Battle Act), ch 575, 65 Stat. 644, 22 USC § 1611-13c (1952). Cited in Paul H Silverstone, p.334
- ^ Toward an entangling alliance: American isolationism, internationalism, and Europe, 1901-1950 by Ronald E. Powaski(1991)
- United States National Archives, Administrative History
- ^ "Joint State-Defense MDAP (Mutual Defense Assistance Program) Survey Mission. 6/30/1950-8/6/1950". catalog.archives.gov. Retrieved August 9, 2022.
- ^ From peacekeeping to peacemaking: Canada's response to the Yugoslav crisis by Nicholas Gammer
- ^ A short history of Yugoslavia from early times to 1966 by Stephen Clissold, Henry Clifford Darby
Bibliography
- Lawrence S. Kaplan: A Community of Interests: NATO and the Military Assistance Program, 1948–1951 (1980);
- Chester J. Pach, Jr.: Arming the Free World: The Origins of the United States Military Assistance Program, 1945–1950 (1991);
- Ronald E. Powaski: Toward an entangling alliance: American isolationism, internationalism, and Europe, 1901-1950 (1991);
- Collective: Organizing the world: the United States and regional cooperation in Asia and Europe Galia Press-Barnathan (2003):
- further related bibliography ( incl. texts, digests, extracts ) on US international politic and diplomacy at : 0-313-27274-3&id=ZDAoVZqHwocC&hl=en&source=gbs_similarbooks_s&cad=1 Books.google.be Library
- Vox the Belgian armed forces magazine
- Carlos Caballero Jurado and Nigel Thomas : Central American Wars 1959-1980 (illustrated by Simon McCouaig) Osprey Publishing MEN-AT-ARM Serie n°221, 1990
- Alejandro de Quesada : The Bay of Pigs - Cuba 1961 ( illustrated by Stephen Walsh ) - Osprey Publishing - Elite Serie n°166, 2009.
External links
- Peters, Gerhard; Woolley, John T. "Harry S. Truman: "Address on the Occasion of the Signing of the North Atlantic Treaty," April 4, 1949". The American Presidency Project. University of California - Santa Barbara.
- Peters, Gerhard; Woolley, John T. "Harry S. Truman: "Statement by the President on the Coming Into Effect of the North Atlantic Treaty.," August 24, 1949". The American Presidency Project. University of California - Santa Barbara.
- Peters, Gerhard; Woolley, John T. "Harry S. Truman: "Executive Order 10099—Providing for the Administration of the Mutual Defense Assistance Act of 1949," January 27, 1950". The American Presidency Project. University of California - Santa Barbara.
- Peters, Gerhard; Woolley, John T. "Harry S. Truman: "Statement by the President Upon Issuing Order Providing for the Administration of the Mutual Defense Assistance Act.," January 27, 1950". The American Presidency Project. University of California - Santa Barbara. Archived from the original on August 29, 2016. Retrieved October 9, 2017.