115. Editorial Note
In his memorandum for the record of the White House daily staff meeting on January 2, 1962, Colonel Legere reported that Arthur Schlesinger complained “that the Disarmament Advisory Committee, which consists of 15 individuals, includes only one person who could be fairly described as a liberal: Ralph McGill of the Atlanta Constitution. Mr. McGill has had no exposure to disarmament matters, and, besides, Mr. Schlesinger felt that a group as big as 15 could well have included 2 or 3 persons of liberal persuasion. Mr. Bundy shut this off rather firmly when he said that the President himself had approved the list and felt that it was important to have the Administration’s disarmament policy supported by the Republicans, who in general were not as likely to be quite as liberal as some might like. Anyhow, almost everyone agreed that the immediate future of disarmament activity would be largely in the nature of a propaganda exercise, although Carl Kaysen entered a moderate dissent [Page 288] to this view by saying that we must always stand willing to negotiate substance if the Soviets appear forthcoming.” (National Defense University, Taylor Papers, Daily Staff Meetings Jan-Apr 62)