Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, General: Economic and Political Matters, Volume I, Part 1

Eisenhower Library, White House Central files, Confidential file

Memorandum by the Chairman of the President’s Advisory Committee on Government Organization (Rockefeller) to the President ¹

confidential

Washington , August 9, 1954.

• Subject:
• Telecommunications Policy and Organization

Introduction

Your Committee has recently considered the existing organization of telecommunications functions in the Government and after consulting with several Government telecommunications experts, brings to your attention certain problems, considerations and recommendations which have a vital bearing on the national security. In the cold war kind of world, adequate, efficient and rapid telecommunications to support and mobilize the economic, political and social complexes of the free world may be a crucial factor in the success of any military effort.

Problems and Considerations

Our consultants, in their preliminary analysis of the telecommunications situation, point up the following problems and considerations:

(1) The Soviet Union has developed telecommunications as a positive instrument of its national and international policy and uses telecommunications as a key weapon in controlling its peoples and for subversion and propaganda abroad. The communists are capable of disrupting our present vital, long-range high-frequency radio communications at any time.

(2) The United States, on the other hand, has not organized and utilized its telecommunications resources in a fully effective manner in its struggle with world communism. Our basic telecommunications policies, which have not been significantly revised in twenty years, were set down in a period when our position in the world and world conditions were quite different.

(3) Our telecommunications policies have not been altered in face of the changed economic, political and military situation and, indeed, appear to ignore the importance of telecommunications in the struggle against world communism. (See Appendix, Paragraph A, for Illustration.²)

(4) We lack a cohesive, up-to-date national telecommunications policy, geared to the realization of over-all U.S. objectives. As a consequence, each agency, public and private, proceeds largely in its own manner to discharge its agency mission or serve its company interest.

(5) These conditions have weakened this country’s telecommunications position internationally. Many foreign nations have been able, through state ownership or control over telecommunications, to exploit to their own advantage competition between U.S. companies.

(6) Lack of a comprehensive U.S. telecommunications policy has led to contradictory Government treatment of various segments of the telecommunications industry. (See Appendix, Paragraph B, for Illustration.)

(7) There is evidence that technological developments in telecommunications, brought about largely at U.S. Government expense, are not being applied and utilized on a broad basis in the over-all national interest. (See Appendix, Paragraph C, for Illustration.)

(8) The Communications Act of 1934, which is the basic expression of U.S. communications policy, is deficient in the following respects:

(a) The policy and organizational philosophy of the Act assumes the existence of only two alternative situations—peace or war. The Act contemplates no intermediate situation such as the current cold war, and therefore, leaves unclear the legal basis for developing over-all policies and organization for mobilizing private and Government telecommunications resources in the prosecution of national objectives in the cold war. (See Appendix, Paragraph D for Illustration.)

(b) The Act in giving control of use of the radio spectrum within the U.S. to two authorities—(1) to the Federal Communications Commission, which licenses private use of the spectrum, and (2) the President, who is responsible for Government use of the spectrum—does not provide an adequate or satisfactory basis for resolving conflicts between Government and private use of radio frequencies. (See Appendix, Paragraph E for Illustration.)

(9) The Government’s present telecommunications organization appears to have resulted from piecemeal attempts over the years to resolve particular crises and conflicts. Since World War II, national and international telecommunications problems have become more numerous, complex and acute and our telecommunications organization has, to a large extent, been inadequate to cope effectively with these festering problems. (See Appendix, Paragraph F, for Illustration.)

(10) In this situation, the Office of Defense Mobilization in 1953 was given authority to advise and assist the President on telecommunications. It has adequate authority to deal with most of the mobilization aspects of telecommunications on an interim basis, and to deal with day-to-day problems in connection with Government radio frequencies. Despite severe staff limitations ODM is making increasing progress in finding an interim solution to some of the more acute problems.

Conclusions

Your Committee concludes:

(1) That present telecommunications policy and organization are ill-suited to serve U.S. requirements in the current world situation;

(2) that it is imperative that this crucial subject be given a careful, comprehensive examination with a view to developing recommendations to provide for the U.S. an up-to-date, well-integrated national telecommunications policy and supporting organization consistent with both Governmental and private needs, and

(3) that, pending the completion of this comprehensive study, the telecommunications activities of the Office of Defense Mobilization should be given all possible support and assistance by the Executive Branch.

Recommendation

Recommendation No. 1—

A Cabinet Committee consisting of the Director of the Office of Defense Mobilization, as Chairman, and the Secretaries of State and Defense as Members, should be established to explore and formulate national policy and organizational recommendations covering the field of telecommunications.

In addition, the Secretaries of the Treasury and Commerce and the Directors of the U.S. Information Agency, the Bureau of the Budget, the Foreign Operations Administration, and the Central Intelligence Agency, should serve as ad hoc participating members on particular matters of respective concern to them. Your Advisory Committee will be glad to cooperate whenever possible.

The Cabinet Committee should establish effective liaison with the Federal Communications Commission, with due regard for that Agency’s particular functions and responsibilities. The Cabinet Committee, with the advice and assistance of the Director of the Bureau of the Budget, in working out the necessary administrative arrangements, should secure for this project such staff and technical assistance as may be necessary to accomplish its task.³

Nelson A. Rockefeller

1. Forwarded to the President under cover of a memorandum by Rockefeller and Rowland R. Hughes, Director of the Bureau of the Budget, dated Aug. 9, stating that the memorandum on telecommunications policy was prepared with the assistance of government communications experts, and in cooperation with the Bureau of the Budget, and cleared with the President’s assistant, Sherman Adams. A handwritten notation on the covering memorandum, initialed by President Eisenhower, reads: “Approved in principle.” Regarding the Rockefeller Committee, see footnote 4, p. 231.
2. Appendix is not printed.
3. The President established a Cabinet committee on telecommunications policy in late August.