Editorial Note

On July 14, President Eisenhower met with the Joint Chiefs of Staff-designates, Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson, and Deputy Secretary of Defense Roger M. Kyes. (Eisenhower Library, Eisenhower records, “Daily Appointments, 1953”) The following is General Ridgway’s subsequent account:

“The four men were called to the White House for a meeting with Eisenhower. The meeting lasted for perhaps half an hour. Succinctly, the President outlined his ideas. He had brought us back a month early, he said, because he thought it was extremely important for us to make a tour together of the major institutions of the armed forces, including the great atomic energy plants. He wanted us thoroughly to familiarize ourselves with the entire military establishment. With this background of information, he then wanted us to make a completely new, fresh survey of our military capabilities in light of our global commitments. He stressed the fact that he did not want a long exhaustive staff study. He recognized our great collective experience, he said, and what he wanted from us was our own individual views, honestly and forthrightly stated.” (Matthew B. Ridgway, as told to Harold H. Martin, Soldier, page 267. No record of this meeting has been found in Department of State files.)

For Admiral Radford’s memoir account of aspects of his term of service as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, with special reference to the modification of overall national defense strategy in 1953, see From Pearl Harbor to Vietnam: The Memoirs of Admiral Arthur W. Radford , edited by Stephen Jurika, Jr. (Stanford, California, Hoover Institution Press, 1980), pages 317–338.