State and War Department planners, whose job it is to translate broad policies into practical details, had a rough plan for Greece ready by week’s end. Of the $400 million which the President asked, Greece would get $254 million in the next two years. This is how it would be spent:
¶ $154 million for military items (rations, clothing, rifles, grenades, automatic rifles, light and heavy machine guns, mortars, motor transports, fuel, lubricants; if there was anything left it would go for artillery and some aircraft—chiefly for the psychological effect).
¶ $35 million for rehabilitation-(food, medicines, agricultural equipment, critically needed goods such as clothing).
¶ $65 million for reconstruction (heavy machinery and equipment needed to restore power plants, transportation systems and agricultural processing plants destroyed by the Germans).
From 200 to 300 U.S. Army & Navy officers would handle the military supplies, operating in conjunction with the British military mission already in Greece. The British have not said they would not leave their mission there. Neither have they said they would. The U.S. hoped they would.
The Olive Trees. The machinery for administering rehabilitation and reconstruction funds was not yet set up. One plan was to put a single man in control of all civil and military operations. The man might be Ambassador Lincoln MacVeagh. The specific economic operations might be turned over to ex-OPA Chief Paul Porter, head of the U.S. mission now studying conditions in Greece.
In any event, the U.S.-financed reconstruction of Greece would not be left to the Greeks. It would be under tight U.S. control and administered by U.S.-made OPAs, WPBs, etc. The primary objective would be to get Greek olive groves and tobacco land back to work.
Turkey would get $146 million, all of which would go for military supplies. Probably only a token U.S. military mission would be sent to Ankara. The aid to Turkey was largely psychological. It would be nowhere near sufficient in the case of a Russian attack.
*Greece is also on the list of countries which will get some “basic relief” from the $350-million foreign relief bill now being considered by Congress. A United Nations mission has a 10ng-range, 25-year plan for developing Greece’s economy, recommended an initial loan of $100 million.
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