Meshing the Gears
The Battle Act is a part of the economic defense program of the Government. The economic defense program involves at least 10 agencies whose activities and interests have to be coordinated. The coordination is accomplished through the Economic Defense Advisory Committee (EDAC). The chairman of EDAC is the FOA Deputy Director for MDAC. The chart opposite this page shows what agencies are members and how the EDAC structure is set up. In addition the United States Information Agency has an observer on EDAC, and economic defense matters are closely coordinated with USIA for overseas information purposes.
The chart also shows that EDAC has an Executive Committee; it handles the day-to-day operating and policy problems of the economic defense program. EDAC advises the Director of the Foreign Operations Administration and the Secretary of State who are charged with coordinating the implementation of the program of economic defense matters including the control of strategic shipments from the free world to the Soviet bloc.
Each agency that has a part in the economic defense program brings its own particular point of view to the discussions which constantly go on in the EDAC structure. For example, the Department of State is the agency that coordinates the overall foreign policy of the Government and deals directly with other countries; hence, that Department is able to speak authoritatively about the vital problems involved in maintaining good relations and close cooperation among the free nations, and concerning the most feasible and effective means of exerting United States influence in the implementation of United States policies. The Department of Defense, being the agency primarily concerned with military defense, brings to the discussions its own expert knowledge of military matters and contributes valuable advice on the military aspects of the problems that come up. The Department of Commerce brings its specialized knowledge of commodities and its experience in the administration of controls over the exportation of goods from the United States. The Foreign Operations Administration, besides administering the Battle Act, brings the point of view of the program of foreign assistance and the economic factors which must be taken into account. The Treasury Department is the authority on foreign-assets control, the Atomic Energy Commission on the significance and control of all atomic-energy materials, and so on through the list.
All these viewpoints and all these special areas of expert knowledge and experience are necessary to a well-rounded economic defense program. Each agency, while discharging its obligation to make its own special contribution to policy, is perfectly well aware that it is only one of the participants, and that the other agencies have legitimate points of view and valuable contributions to make. It is natural and inevitable that these agencies should not approach every problem of economic defense with identical views. But when the problem has been thoroughly considered, and all viewpoints taken into account, a decision is made on the basis of the overriding security interest of the country, and that decision then becomes the policy of the Government as a whole, respected by each agency regardless of the specialized views which it might have expressed in the discussions.