EXHIBIT V

LETTERS FROM SECRETARY OF STATE DEAN RUSK AND SECRETARY OF DEFENSE ROBERT S. MCNAMARA ON STATUS AND EVALUATION OF THE STATE-DEFENSE OFFICER EXCHANGE PROGRAM

Hon. HENRY M. JACKSON,
U.S. Senate.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE,
Washington, July 27, 1964.

DEAR SENATOR JACKSON: In response to your letter of June 20, I am enclosing a staff report which will provide you and your colleagues with an up-to-date picture of the State-Defense Officer Exchange Program in terms of its impact on the Department of State. I would like to add some further personal comments of my own on this Program. Let me say at the outset that I am quite pleased with it and feel that it has been notably successful in accomplishing its objectives.

While the fundamental objectives of the Program fall under the heading of training, I have been impressed with the contributions that the Exchange Officers have made to the substantive performance of the two Departments. Because of their generally high quality and broad experience, these officers have usually been able to contribute in short order to the work of their new offices. There is no doubt that the Department of State's handling of politico-military problems has benefited significantly from the contributions of the Defense exchange officers. In many cases, their efforts have been quite outstanding.

With the Program now firmly and successfully established, we are not so much concerned with emphasizing its strong points as we are with detecting, and rectifying, any weaknesses we may discover. We recognize that its continuing success cannot be taken for granted. It requires close and continuing attention by those responsible in the two Departments, including senior officials. In the State Department, the Exchange Program continues to receive the personal attention of the Deputy Under Secretary for Political Affairs.

I would identify three key elements that have been and continue to be essential to the success of this Program: (1) the selection of high quality personnel to participate in it; (2) the assurance that positions made available for exchange personnel have an appropriate level of responsibility, challenge, and elevation in the bureaucratic hierarchy; and (3) confidence of the participants that onward assignments and general career development will bear meaningful relation to their exchange experience. I think that we have so far managed to satisfy these criteria in an impressive way, and I am confident that we can continue to do so.

Sincerely,

Enclosure: Staff report.

DEAN RUSK.

Report on the State-Defense Officer Exchange Program The State-Defense Exchange Program went into actual operation in early January 1961 with the initial assignment of five officers by each agency. The fundamental assumption underlying the Program was that the intimate interdependence of foreign policy and military policy required that the two departments primarily responsible for them have available a growing number of officers with a solid grasp of the responsibilities, problems, procedures and operations of the other.

Serving a normal two-year working tour in the other agency was viewed as one effective way of producing this result. It was not and is not regarded as the only way to do so since a number of other personnel programs of the Departments of State and Defense contribute to it. Among them might be mentioned the assignment of Foreign Service Officers as Political Advisers to military commanders and as faculty advisers and students at the various senior military colleges; and the recently initiated program under which watch of

ficers are exchanged between the National Military Command Center and the State Department's Operations Center.

From the point of view of those Foreign Service Officers who have participated in the Program and those State Department officers who have been supervisors and colleagues of the exchange personnel from the Department of Defense, the Program, on the basis of 31⁄2 years of experience with it, is regarded as a substantial success. Not only is it increasing the number of Foreign Service Officers interested in and experienced in dealing with politico-military problems, but it has also contributed to the improvement of State-Defense relations and communications and to the quality of national security policy-making in both agencies.

Within the Department of State, the various aspects of the Exchange Program have been coordinated and closely monitored by the staff of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Politico-Military Affairs, in collaboration with the Office of Personnel. The Program has had the personal attention and interest of the Deputy Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, to whose office the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Politico-Military Affairs is attached.

As of July 15, 1964, 26 Foreign Service Officers have participated in the Program. (A complete list of these officers is attached). Eleven are on duty at present in the Department of Defense. Of the 26 officers, two later resigned from the Foreign Service and. one died. Of the remaining 23, 11 have been promoted either while in the Program or since leaving it. Among the 12 officers who have moved on from the Program to other assignments, two went abroad as Deputy Chiefs of Mission (DCMs), a third received a DCM assignment after a year in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, two are serving as heads of embassy political sections in key countries in South East Asia and Africa, two are politico-military officers in key overseas missions, one is an Assistant Political Adviser to a military commander, and two are deputy office directors within the Department of State in Washington. (One of the lastnamed is about to go abroad as chief of the political section in a major embassy in Latin America.) As this listing suggests, onward assignments of returning Foreign Service exchange officers have been carefully scrutinized in terms of their relevance to the exchange experience.

Because of the Program's requirements for highly competent officers and positions suited to their talents, suggestions to expand its size have been very carefully reviewed. For the present the two Departments regard fifteen officers from each agency as an appropriate maximum level for the Program. It was recently agreed, for the first time, to bring overseas posts into the Program. This will begin with the assignment, in August 1964, of a civilian official from the Office of International Security Affairs of the Department of Defense to the politicomilitary affairs unit of the U.S. Embassy in London.

The high reputation the Program enjoys within the Department of State has generated considerable interest in participating in it. It should therefore be possible to maintain and perhaps even improve the high quality of the officers so far assigned to it. Typically, the Foreign Service Officer exchangee has been a Class 3 officer (17 out of 26). In the Foreign Service, Class 3 is usually viewed as the beginning of the senior ranks. On the basis of the experience to this point, there is some inclination to include more Class 4 officers among those assigned to the Program. Class 4 officers have usually had a minimum of 10 to 12 years in the Foreign Service and held positions of responsibility, requiring maturity and depth of policy understanding and judgment.

DEAR SENATOR JACKSON: This is in response to your June 30 request for my evaluation of the State-Defense Officer Exchange Program. I feel the program has been most worthwhile and is attaining the basic program objective of a better mutual understanding of approaches, operations and problems.

Since it was established in early 1961, a total of twenty-three Defense exchangees have participated. Our exchangees have been utilized throughout the State Department in assignments commensurate with their grades and experience. The same has been true in Defense where State exchangees have been assigned to my staff, the Joint Staff and in the service staffs. This has provided not only excellent individual training but also a desirable degree of cross-fertilization between the two Departments. While summer rotation has reduced the number to slightly below the authorized level of thirteen Defense participants, we expect to get back to full strength by September. The quality of participants on both sides has been excellent which accounts in great measure for the excellent reputation the program now enjoys in both Departments. It appears fifteen exchangees will be about the desirable number which each side can support and still maintain the prestige and careful refinement needed in the exchange process. I anticipate we will reach the fifteen level within the next year.

I doubt that there has ever been any closer coordination, cooperation and mutual understanding between the two Departments than we are now experiencing. Certainly, this is not attributable entirely to the State-Defense Officer Exchange Program, but that program has done its share in achieving this result. Sincerely, ROBERT S. MCNAMARA.

Enclosure: List of Defense Exchangees.

August 1961 to May 1964.... Special Assistant to Officer in

January 1961 to July 1963... Officer in Charge of PM

October 1961 to July 1963... Senior Staff Member, Com

January 1961 to July 1962. Deputy Regional Planning

January 1961 to April 1962... International Relations Offi