lieve, got some extra pay. I think it is something of many, many years standing when they are on a purely training job. I would have to get the exact figures. Mr. EFRON. May I add something to that, Mr. Vorys: There are a number of mission agreements with various Latin American countries whereby our officers and men are in effect on contract with the country to which they are assigned. It was our feeling that the mission people might conceivably have a conflict of interests if they were also to act as MAAG personnel; if they were to a certain degree the employees of these countries they would not be in a position to analyze critically the requests of the countries and their performance. Mr. VORYS. I fully approve of your position, but I confess I never knew of this thing and it sounds scandalous to me. Mr. EFRON. I don't think they get extra compensation for their services, but I believe they do receive a station allowance. General STEWART. Whether or not that meets the approval of the committee, sir, that is of something many years standing. We have trained some of these people in Latin America by lending them certain officers down there for a couple of years, and they have always gotten extra pay. Mr. VORYS. It has nothing to do with this program, but I would like to get a memorandum on it. To me it is a shocking custom. I do not care how long its has been going on. Mr. JUDD. Do they draw all their regular pay from the United States Government? General STEWART. Yes. Mrs. CHURCH. Do they draw overseas pay, too? General STEWART. I don't believe there is any overseas pay, now. Mrs. CHURCH. Well, a man does get something in addition. Captain RODIMON. There is a station allowance. Mrs. CHURCH. Does he get that in addition to the training fee? Captain RODIMON. Yes. STATEMENT OF ROBERT M. SAYRE, OFFICE OF REGIONAL Mr. SAYRE. I believe I can explain this compensation. We have Army, Navy, and Air Force missions in 19 of the 20 Latin American countries. The only country where we do not have such a mission is in Argentina. We do not have all three types of missions, that is, Army, Navy, and Air Force missions in every country. The amount of money that General Stewart is talking about is referred to as additional compensation and the purpose of it is to pay the officers and enlisted men for the extra expense that they incur by being on duty in Latin America. It runs from about $1,000 to $2,000 a year, and it is to take care of any extra expenses they run into because of their service in Latin America. Mr. VORYS. Do you mean they go on the payroll of those countries? Mr. SAYRE. The other countries pay that amount of money; yes, sir. Mr. LECOMPTE. What would be an enlisted man's extra expense? He would have his rations and clothing and quarters. Mr. SAYRE. No; they do not have their quarters. In most cases, they have to get their own quarters down there. Mr. VORYS. Would that take place any place else in the world besides South America? We have not made much progress--I don't enjoy saying that, but it is a fact. These bilaterals do not become effective until the country's legislative body agrees to them. Brazil only came in on the 19th day of May 1953; Chile came in the 10th of July 1952; Colombia, the 17th day of April 1952; Cuba, the 7th of March 1952; Ecuador, the 20th of February 1952; and Peru, the 8th of April 1952. We have had about a year to get these programs going. There have been some other difficulties in making substantial progress. We have had questions of placing personnel in the MAAG's down there. The countries have been somewhat slow to reach the agreement required under the laws that govern our operation. I would like to explain that: If we have a training mission, for instance, in a South American country, those people are to a certain extent employed by the country. They get extra pay from the country. Under an interpretation made of the MSA Act, no one receiving any such pay can be a judge or have the decision in making up these programs of mutual assistance. So we have had quite a loss of time in getting things like that straightened out and getting MAAG personnel into the countries. We have used some temporary MAAG's to get some of the equipment going. (Discussion off the record.) Chairman CHIPERFIELD. Is Panama a party to this treaty? Mr. WOOD. We have here Mr. Cale, of the State Department, who could answer any questions of that nature. STATEMENT OF EDWARD G. CALE, JR., DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF REGIONAL AMERICAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF STATE Mr. CALE. Yes, Panama is a party to the Rio Treaty. (Discussion off the record.) Mr. VORYS. Did you say our MAAG's receive pay from the governments they are visiting. General STEWART. A MAAG cannot. Some of our training missions we have had in Latin America for a great many years do receive compensation from the foreign governments for the work they do in training their forces. Mr. VORYS. Do you mean if you would be sent there or some of these officers on a training mission, you or they would be paid by that government in addition to their compensation from our Government. General STEWART. Yes, sir; that has been a practice for many years, long before this started. It has been ruled that the law prohibits any man so receiving pay from being designated a final judge of the equipment that they need. I was merely trying to explain our slowness in getting this program under way. Mr. VORYS. I never knew that was the case. Do the training missions in any other place except Latin America get side money like that? General STEWART. I really don't know, sir. I know that many years ago, I believe General MacArthur himself was head of a mission in the Philippines and those people, I be lieve, got some extra pay. I think it is something of many, many years standing when they are on a purely training job. I would have to get the exact figures. Mr. EFRON. May I add something to that, Mr. Vorys: There are a number of mission agreements with various Latin American countries whereby our officers and men are in effect on contract with the country to which they are assigned. It was our feeling that the mission people might conceivably have a conflict of interests if they were also to act as MAAG personnel; if they were to a certain degree the employees of these countries they would not be in a position to analyze critically the requests of the countries and their performance. Mr. VORYS. I fully approve of your position, but I confess I never knew of this thing and it sounds scandalous to me. Mr. EFRON. I don't think they get extra compensation for their services, but I believe they do receive a station allowance. General STEWART. Whether or not that meets the approval of the committee, sir, that is of something many years standing. We have trained some of these people in Latin America by lending them certain officers down there for a couple of years, and they have always gotten extra pay. Mr. VORYS. It has nothing to do with this program, but I would like to get a memorandum on it. To me it is a shocking custom. I do not care how long its has been going on. Mr. JUDD. Do they draw all their regular pay from the United States Government? General STEWART. Yes. Mrs. CHURCH. Do they draw overseas pay, too? General STEWART. I don't believe there is any overseas pay, now. Mrs. CHURCH. Well, a man does get something in addition. Captain RODIMON. There is a station allowance. Mrs. CHURCH. Does he get that in addition to the training fee? Captain RODIMON. Yes. STATEMENT OF ROBERT M. SAYRE, OFFICE OF REGIONAL Mr. SAYRE. I believe I can explain this compensation. We have Army, Navy, and Air Force missions in 19 of the 20 Latin American countries. The only country where we do not have such a mission is in Argentina. We do not have all three types of missions, that is, Army, Navy, and Air Force missions in every country. The amount of money that General Stewart is talking about is referred to as additional compensation and the purpose of it is to pay the officers and enlisted men for the extra expense that they incur by being on duty in Latin America. It runs from about $1,000 to $2,000 a year, and it is to take care of any extra expenses they run into because of their service in Latin America. Mr. VORYS. Do you mean they go on the payroll of those countries? Mr. SAYRE. The other countries pay that amount of money; yes, sir. Mr. LECOMPTE. What would be an enlisted man's extra expense? He would have his rations and clothing and quarters. Mr. SAYRE. NO; they do not have their quarters. In most cases, they have to get their own quarters down there. Mr. VORYS. Would that take place any place else in the world besides South America? Mr. SAYRE. I understand there are some missions in the Near East, but I am not qualified to speak on that because my area of interest is only Latin America. Mr. JUDD. For example, compared with the advisory mission that we had under General Van Fleet in Greece, was not to exceed 500 people in an advisory capacity only according to the act. Did they get compensation from Greece in addition to their compensation from the United States? Mr. EFRON. No, sir; they did not. Mr. SAYRE. I might add that this additional compensation started, as I understand it, in 1941, and the amount of pay that is establi hed for each country-each country pays a different amount-depends on the cost of living in that country. The allowances were formalized and approved by the President in 1942. They have been paying them since then. Mrs. CHURCH. During the war, sir, was the difference paid by the country? Mr. SAYRE. Yes: I understand it was. Mrs. CHURCH. In the case of a Navy man stationed in Ceylon, for instance, the difference was paid by Great Britain? Mr. SAYRE. I do not know about Ceylon. I am only speaking of Latin America. Mr. VORYS. We had a training mission in Iran for many years. Did they get it? General STEWART. We will let you know about that. Mr. VORYS. Could we get a full statement on that?. Mr. VORYS. As you say, MSA takes the position that those men cannot be used. The MSA policy is in the other direction. General STEWART. I would like to amplify that, sir, and get it in the record, that in an effort to establish a MAAG in these countriesand these are very small units but we have to have a MAAG-we have compromised. We are going to have at least one officer and possibly a couple of enlisted people who have nothing to do with the training mission. He is to be the MAAG, but some of the inspections and checks and reports will be prepared by the training mission. Otherwise, we would have so many people in the country it would look ridiculous. That is what we finally come down to in a compromise. The country doesn't understand it. They say, "We have a mission. Why do you want anybody else down here?" That is what we have finally worked out. (Discussion off the record.) Mrs. CHURCH. Mr. Chairman, may I ask a simple question at this point? Chairman CHIPERFIELD. Mrs. Church. Mrs. CHURCH. I wonder if you could outline how we go about arranging an agreement like this? Do we go down to Brazil and say, "Now we think the world is in danger and we must unite against Soviet aggression. What do you want?" General STEWART. Generally, we are asked for assistance. In this case, when it was decided to include the Latin American countries in the military assistance program, the ground was prepared, of course, through diplomatic channels. Then we actually got together a group of officers from the three services. I believe they operated under the Chairman of the United States delegation to the Inter-American Defense Board. They then went to the country and worked out some details. But the actual signed agreement is handled through the State Department. I would like to defer to the State Department, if they would wish to add to my statement. Mr. CALE. I think there is very little to add. The agreement was negotiated by the State Department in cooperation with the Armed Forces, with the teams who went down to the countries, and the agreement was signed providing for the type of assistance that we would give them. Mrs. CHURCH. Now, at what level is the decision made as to the amount of the assistance? General STEWART. Before you know what you have to buy for your children, you have to know how many children you have. The first thing you have to start with is, What are we going to support? Well, a study is made by the staff in the various committees and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They have access to knowledge as to what is in that country, what its military history is. Now, as I indicated in my previous statement, we do have a need for this in the hemisphere defense. There are certain places where if these countries don't place some forces we have to send some of our own down there in the event of war. Mr. VORYS. Do you mean we would be planning to send [deletion— secret] trucks down there to Brazil to fight the Communists? General STEWART. That is not an unreasonable number of trucks, sir, for [deletion-secret]. Chairman CHIPERFIELD. What do they have to shoot at down there? General STEWART. I can tell you where they intend to use that. I have it somewhere, but it is one of the units being used in the hemisphere defense plan. (Discussion off the record.) Mr. CALE. Yes. General STEWART. There is no intention of doing this except in the event of a war. May I complete my answer to Mrs. Church? The Joint Chiefs of Staff make up a recommendation to the Secretary of Defense as to the forces in the country. It is from that basis that we arrive at the money, by determining what equipment we must give them to make those forces effective. We then arrive at the money. Mrs. CHURCH. Then the decision is made at the level of the Joint Chiefs as to the amount they need? General STEWART. As to the forces. That always is submitted in the recommendation to the Secretary of Defense. The State Department and the Director of Mutual Security have a voice in his final approval. Mrs. CHURCH. Has any South American country or Latin American country said no? General STEWART. I understand that Mexico did not look favorably upon a suggestion that they come with us. Mrs. CHURCH. And refused any MSA loan. General STEWART. They refused military assistance. |