Eisenhower Library, Eisenhower papers, Whitman file
Memorandum of Discussion at the 152d Meeting of the National Security Council, Thursday, July 2, 19531
eyes only
[Extract]
The following were present at the 152d meeting of the Council: The President of the United States, Presiding; the Vice President of the United States;2 the Acting Secretary of State;3 the Acting Secretary of Defense;4 the Director for Mutual Security;5 the Director, Office of Defense Mobilization.6 Also present were the Secretary of the Treasury;7 the Attorney General (for Item 1);8 the Director, Bureau of the Budget;9 the United States Representative to the United Nations10 (for Item 6); the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff;11 the Director of Central Intelligence;12 Robert Cutler, Special Assistant to the President; C.D. Jackson, Special Assistant to the President; the Military Liaison Officer; the Acting Executive Secretary, NSC; and Hugh D. Farley, NSC Special Staff Member.
There follows a summary of the discussion at the meeting and the main points taken.
. . . . . . .
7. Report to the President by the President’s Committee on International Information Activities Dated June 30, 195313
Mr. Cutler briefly discussed the contents of Chapter 7 of the subject report as the portion which affected the National Security Council and which the President desired the Council to consider. Mr. Cutler noted that the proposal in Chapter 7, to create an Operations Coordinating Board, had had rough handling in the Planning Board, which had raised objections to its content and to the fact that the chapter was being considered without adequate prior staff work. In the light of these objections, Mr. Cutler continued, he recommended that the Council make no decision at this meeting [Page 1878] with regard to the proposals in Chapter 7 for an Operations Coordinating Board, and that Chapter 7 now be referred to the Bureau of the Budget for preparation of a draft Executive Order which could be brought to the Council for consideration. The balance of the report should be referred to the Planning Board for its suggestions and comments, which will be reported back by July 17.
The President said that it seemed to him that the Operations Coordinating Board was a necessary parallel to the Planning Board, and we needed it. Nevertheless, there was a gap in this thing. Chapter 7 proposes to abolish the Psychological Strategy Board. In that case, how could we make sure that the psychological factor in important Government actions was not overlooked, since the OCB would have as its primary responsibility the coordinated execution of national security policies?
Mr. Cutler attempted to point out that the burden of the whole Jackson Committee report indicated that there was no such separate entity as a psychological factor, but that all actions of the Government had psychological repercussions which could not be separated.
The President stated that, while he certainly was not asking for a new PSB, he wanted to be assured that someone was going to keep track of the psychological side as of major importance.
Mr. C.D. Jackson pointed out that there would be a small “think staff” in the Operations Coordinating Board which would have the responsibility of keeping track of the psychological factor, and the President expressed himself as satisfied as long as the matter were not overlooked.
Secretary Kyes said that what was proposed in Chapter 7 was actually what the PSB was now doing, and the adoption of Chapter 7 would merely legitimize present practices. Looking around at Secretary Smith, Mr. Stassen, Mr. Allen Dulles, and Mr. C. D. Jackson, Secretary Kyes said, “Your PSB is right here.” He added that an adequate staff for psychological purposes would certainly be continued.
The President said that in any case he wanted the whole problem very carefully studied. While he had given his blessing generally to the proposals in Chapter 7, he certainly did not want to act in a cursory way.
Secretary Smith said that theoretically this was a very sound position, but that the President must realize that if the Planning Board began to work on Chapter 7 they would find all kinds of bogeymen. He then inquired whether the Executive Order which would be drafted by the Bureau of the Budget would be shopped around among the interested agencies before it was brought to the Council for consideration.
[Page 1879]Mr. Cutler assured Secretary Smith that this would be the case, and then raised the issue of possible scrutiny or interference in war plans, which, he said, disturbed the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Secretary Smith answered by stating that there was not the slightest implication that the new Operations Coordinating Board would make any determinations with regard to war plans, or would be involved in them in any way except in so far as the Secretary of Defense had responsibility for them. Indeed, the Board was not at all interested in war plans except in so far as any military movement would have psychological overtones.
On this point the President commented that if we were unable to devise techniques to safeguard the secrecy of our war plans we had been reduced to a sad state.
Mr. Allen Dulles inquired whether the coordinating functions of the proposed Board would apply to a national security policy which involved a single department of the Government, or only in the event that several departments were involved.
The President quickly replied that if one department had responsibility for the execution of a policy, that department alone would coordinate the implementation of the policy.
The National Security Council:14
- a.
- Discussed Chapter 7 of the subject report, with respect to the abolition of the Psychological Strategy Board and the establishment of an Operations Coordinating Board.
- b.
- Noted the President’s interest in the recommendations contained in Chapter 7 of the subject report; in continuing attention to the psychological impact of significant governmental action; and in receiving the views of the Council in regard to Chapter 7.
- c.
- Referred Chapter 7 to the Director, Bureau of the Budget, for the preparation of a draft Executive Order suitable for implementing the recommendations contained in Chapter 7, to be submitted in the near future for Council consideration.
- d.
- Referred the balance of the report to the NSC Planning Board for consideration and subsequent report to the Council by July 17.
- e.
- Agreed that any proposed press release on this subject be postponed pending further consideration of the report.
Note: The action in c above subsequently transmitted to the Director, Bureau of the Budget for implementation.
- Prepared by S. Everett Gleason, Deputy Executive Secretary of the NSC, on July 3.↩
- Richard M. Nixon.↩
- Walter Bedell Smith.↩
- Roger M. Kyes.↩
- Harold E. Stassen.↩
- Arthur S. Flemming.↩
- George M. Humphrey.↩
- Herbert Brownell, Jr.↩
- Joseph M. Dodge.↩
- Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.↩
- General of the Army Omar N. Bradley.↩
- Allen W. Dulles.↩
- Ante, p. 1795.↩
- Paragraphs a–e constitute NSC Action No. 836, July 2, 1953. (S/S–NSC files, lot 66 D 95, “NSC Records of Action”)↩