Replying to State Department criticism of what officials have termed the “crippling amendment”–the Foreign Aid Bill amendment calling for termination of aid to Egypt–Senator Ernest Gruening, Alaska Democrat, today told the Senate that the way for President Nasser to regain aid would be to cease aggression.
Sen. Gruening, original sponsor of the amendment, defended it against State Department-inspired criticism. The Senator said “the Senate has finally moved to stop the aid if the President finds there is aggression–and it is difficult to see how he can fail to find it.”
President Nasser could re-establish himself, said Sen. Gruening, if he were to “pull all his troops out of Yemen, to stop the military build-up which is clearly designed to commit aggression against his neighbors, Israel and Jordan, to pull his troops out of Algeria, where there is fighting with the Algerians against Morocco, and to cease his inflammatory broadcasts which preach assassination of officials of neighboring countries.”
Sen. Gruening pointed out that Nasser has spent $185,000,000 maintaining armed intervention in Yemen for 15 months. The Senator stressed that “while he has been spending $185,000,000 on war, we have been pouring in $185,000,000 and more through Public Law 480 (surplus commodities) and other aid designed to raise the economy of the Egyptian people.”
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