Economic Defense Advisory Committee (US)

The Economic Defense Advisory Committee (EDAC) was a United States interagency committee operating from the early 1950s to coordinate advice on export controls and other East-West trade restrictions. It prepared US positions relevant to CoCom, ChinCom and implementation of the Battle Act (US, 1951), but did not govern those separate bodies or exercise their authorities.

Role

Economic defence policy cut across the government: the Commerce Department licensed exports under the Export Control Act (US, 1949), the State Department negotiated with allies in Paris, the foreign-aid administration wielded the Battle Act's aid-termination sanction, and Defense, Treasury and CIA held equities in targets, finance and intelligence. EDAC existed to reconcile them. Documented in the Foreign Relations of the United States series as active by mid-1952, it worked through an executive committee and specialist working groups, preparing US positions for CoCom and ChinCom list negotiations, reviewing control levels against intelligence on bloc procurement, and making recommendations that fed the National Security Council and, from 1954, the Council on Foreign Economic Policy. Vice Admiral Walter S. DeLany chaired the committee in the mid-1950s. The structure persisted, with evolving mandates, into the 1970s as East-West trade policy loosened under detente.

Significance

EDAC illustrates interagency policy coordination, not supranational or enforcement authority. Its committees prepared positions and recommendations; State negotiated, Commerce licensed, Treasury administered relevant financial controls and member governments implemented CoCom decisions. The China Committee (ChinCom) and CoCom were separate multilateral bodies. The Battle Act (US, 1951) and Export Control Act (US, 1949) supplied separate statutory authorities. A committee minute can establish advice or disagreement, but not that EDAC itself denied a licence or caused a foreign government's decision.

See also

CoCom · ChinCom · Battle Act (US, 1951) · Export Control Act (US, 1949) · Economic containment · Technology containment (Cold War model) · Economic warfare · Economic statecraft

Sources

• US Department of State, *Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955-1957*, volume X.
• US Department of State, minutes of the Economic Defense Advisory Committee (23 January 1957).
• Michael Mastanduno, *Economic Containment*.
• United States Congress, Mutual Defense Assistance Control Act of 1951.