Foreign Relations of the United States, 1949, National Security Affairs, Foreign Economic Policy, Volume I

Policy Planning Staff Files

Memorandum by the Executive Secretary of the Policy Planning Staff (Savage)

restricted

[Washington,] September 29, 1949.

At 5:30 in the afternoon of September 19, 1949 Mr. Kennan asked Francis Russell,¹ John Davies,² Robert Hooker,³ and myself to come to his office. He said that this Government had learned of an atomic explosion in Russia, which the President would announce soon, and that we were requested to provide answers to questions concerning this development which might be asked after the President’s announcement. We worked on this problem for about two hours and Mr. Kennan and Mr. Hooker and I worked further on it at Mr. Kennan’s house from 9 to 11 p. m.

On Tuesday, September 20, we worked on the problem some more. Late in the afternoon Rear Admiral Arthur C. Davis, head of the Joint Staff came in and gave us the attitude of the Joint Chiefs on the memorandum we were preparing of questions and answers.

On Wednesday morning, September 21, we were informed that the President was not ready to make the announcement of the atomic explosion in Russia. However, we continued to perfect our questions and answers and called Admiral Davis to see that we were in harmony with the Joint Chiefs of Staff. We had our document completed by 5:30 in the afternoon, at which time I took a copy over to Mr. Ross⁴ at the White House to have it ready in case the President would decide suddenly to make the announcement. Mr. Ross and I discussed the pros and cons on the question. He felt that the President should not yet make the announcement as Secretary Acheson and Foreign Minister Bevin of Great Britain were recommending against it at this time; an announcement by the President would dramatize the situation too much; and the American people had about all the bad news they could stand with the current possibility of strikes.

On Friday morning, September 23 at 9 o’clock, we were informed that the President would make the announcement at 11. We thereupon made arrangements to make our memo of questions and answers available for information to the Field, to responsible officers of the Department, and to the members of the Cabinet. I checked with Admiral Davis to see that they would follow the same procedure at the Pentagon. When the announcement was made at the White House at 11 o’clock,⁵ the information contained in our memorandum was immediately started on its way to appropriate people in Washington and abroad. A copy of our memorandum is attached.⁶

Carlton Savage

1. Director of the Office of Public Affairs.
2. John Paton Davies, Member of the Policy Planning Staff.
3. Robert G. Hooker, Jr., Associate Chief of the Division of Eastern European Affairs; became a member of the Policy Planning Staff on January 23, 1950.
4. Charles G. Ross, Press Secretary to the President.
5. Regarding the President’s announcement, see editorial note, p. 540.
6. The source text is not accompanied by an attachment The Policy Planning Staff prepared two memoranda, very similar in substance, one in the form of a statement and the other in the form of questions and answers. Neither memorandum is printed, but for a circular telegram of September 23 based on the statement version and identical with it in large part, see infra.