Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952–1954, General: Economic and Political Matters, Volume I, Part 2

Eisenhower Library, Eisenhower papers, Whitman file

Memorandum of Discussion at the 170th Meeting of the National Security Council on Thursday, November 12, 1953¹

top secret
eyes only

November 12, 1953

Present at the 170th meeting of the Council were the President of the United States, presiding; the Secretary of State; the Secretary of Defense; the Acting Director, Foreign Operations Administration; and the Director, Office of Defense Mobilization. The Vice President was out of the country and so did not attend this meeting. Also present were the Secretary of the Treasury; the Acting Secretary of the Interior (for Item 1); the Secretary of Commerce (for Item 1); the Director, Bureau of the Budget; the Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission (for Items 2, 4 and 5); the Secretary of the Navy (for Item 1); Robert Murray and Louis Rothschild, of the Department of Commerce (for Item 1); Robert Finley, Office of Defense Mobilization (for Item 1); General Ridgway for the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Director of Central Intelligence; The Assistant to the President; Robert Cutler, Special Assistant to the President; C. D. Jackson, Special Assistant to the President; the Acting White House Staff Secretary; the Executive Secretary, NSC; and the Deputy Executive Secretary, NSC.

There follows a summary of the discussion at the meeting and the chief points taken.

1. A National Petroleum Program (Progress Report, dated October 1, 1953, by the Director, Office of Defense Mobilization, on NSC 97/5; Memo for NSC from Executive Secretary, same subject, dated October 28, 1953; NSC 97/5)²

After Mr. Cutler had briefed the Council on the background of this report, he asked Mr. Flemming to speak first on the general content of the Progress Report and thereafter on the two specific recommendations of the Planning Board to amend NSC 97/5.

Mr. Flemming first reviewed the status of U.S. alkylite capacity, and thereafter the status of the stockpile of aviation gasoline.

Mr. Cutler then explained the proposed amendments to NSC 97/5, and called the Council’s attention to the Financial Appendix.

There then ensued a discussion of the costs and the rate of building the additional 20 new tankers, in the course of which Secretary Weeks stressed the importance of going ahead with this program for building the additional tankers in order to keep U.S. shipyards in action. Unless the new program were adopted, the outlook for employment in American shipyards was extremely dim, and Secretary Weeks thought they might close down entirely after two years. He accordingly recommended that the proposed four-year period for the construction of this second increment of tankers be cut down from four years to two years.

Mr. Rand called attention to the fact that if congestion resulted from a speed-up of the construction period, there was plenty of room to build tankers in shipyards in Western Europe, and that, moreover, the costs of construction would be much less.

Mr. Cutler then explained the second recommendation of the Planning Board, with respect to a shift from a planning to a construction program for new pipelines by private industry.

Mr. Flemming explained that strictly speaking he was merely requesting authorization to develop such a program and not to initiate it at once. While some interest was being shown by private industry in building pipelines, there was no certainty as yet that private industry would be willing to do the job.

With regard to the possibilities of converting such pipelines from gas to oil in the event of war, the President pointed out the difficulties which would be involved in a sudden conversion from gas to oil, which would upset the economies of large areas in the east. He therefore doubted the practicability of such a conversion.

Secretary Tudor stated that the Petroleum Administration for Defense had much the same doubts on the subject as those expressed by the President. Secretaries Humphrey and Wilson indicated similar uncertainty.

At the conclusion of the discussion, Mr. Flemming asked Secretary Anderson if he had given any thought to the desirability of a pipeline to the West Coast. Secretary Anderson said that he had already asked the Joint Chiefs of Staff to look into the question, and he meanwhile thought that it might well be desirable to have a pipeline to the West Coast.

Secretary Weeks suggested that great caution be exercised in this matter, since the effect of additional pipelines would of course be to displace tankers, the number of which we had just been at pains to increase.

The President commented that he trusted that we would not attempt to solve our problems in duplicate.

The National Security Council:

a. Noted the reference Progress Report by the Director, Office of Defense Mobilization, on the subject.

b. Adopted the amendments to NSC 97/5 transmitted by the reference memorandum of October 28 subject to the following changes:

(1) Paragraph 1: Change “four-year period” to read “period of between two to four years”.

(2) Subparagraph 2–b–(4): Revise to read as follows, and delete the footnote:

“(4) In developing such program, (a) explore the practicability of obtaining part of the capacity provided for in subparagraph (1) above by the conversion of the Big Inch pipeline from gas to oil, in the event of war, and (b) reexamine the practicability of the previously-approved program for conversion of the Little Big Inch pipeline from gas to oil.”

Note: The amendments referred to above subsequently approved by the President. NSC 97/5, as amended, subsequently circulated as NSC 97/6.³

1. This memorandum of discussion was prepared on Nov. 13 by Deputy Executive Secretary of the National Security Council Gleason.
2. NSC 97/5, July 24, 1953, is not printed, but see footnote 3, p. 1003; the progress report on NSC 97/5, not printed, described the funds appropriated and committed and the contracts let in pursuit of the objectives of the petroleum program; the memorandum by Lay transmitted a list of amendments based on the Oct. 1 progress report to be considered for inclusion by the NSC in a revised NSC 97/5.(S/S–NSC files, lot 63 D 351, NSC 97 Series)
3. Infra.