PLAN FOR U.S. FORCES IN MIDDLE EAST

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28169, 7 January 1957, Page 7

PLAN FOR U.S. FORCES IN MIDDLE EAST

Eisenhower’s Appeal To Congress (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8 p.m.) WASHINGTON, January 5. President Eisenhower today made a personal plea to to au ! horise use of American forces to help r liddle East nations resist any overt Communist aggression, solemnly and emphatically assured the Soviet Union it had nothing to fear from the United States, in the Middle East or anywhere else, so long as its rulers did not themselves first resort to aggression. The plan, which he put to an extraordinary joint session of both H ° U vr S - em P°. wer *e United States to use £142,850,000 to aid any Middle East nation or group of nations in the next two years in their economic development. It would also allow the United States to give military assistance it requested by such a nation or group for protection against Communist attack. He profoundly hoped that such authority would never have to be exercised.

The Middle East had abruptly reached a new and critical stage in its history, he said. Russia’s interest in the region was solely that of power politics, now as in the days of the Tsars. He hoped that “if our purpose be proclaimed as proposed by the requested legislation, that very fact will serve to halt any contemplated aggression.”

The draft of the joint Congressional resolution requested by President Eisenhower in his speech was introduced in the House of Representatives shortly after the joint session ended. It said in its preamble that “internal subversion” was of the means used by international communism to endanger world peace and United States security. The resolution, which will be considered by the House Foreign Affairs Committee at hearings starting on Monday, expressed Mr Eisenhower’s three-point policy. (1) The resolution would authorise the President “to cooperate with and assist any nation or group of nations in the general area of the Middle East in the development of economic strength dedicated to the maintenance of national independence.”

(2) The President would be authorised to undertake military programmes in the Middle East with any nation or group of nations desiring such assistance. (3) He would be authorised “to employ the armed forces of the United States as he deems necessary to secure and protect the territorial integrity and political independence of any such nation or group of nations requesting such aid against overt armed aggression from any nation controlled by international communism.”