Historical Documents - Office of the Historian

Washington, July 3, 1957.

1.: I have reviewed your “New Look” memorandum for the President (revised draft, July 1, 1957).2 I certainly agree that there is an urgent need for U.S. action to reduce the mounting costs of our total defense effort.
2.: While agreeing that there is need for careful review and utmost economy in defense expenditures, I am inclined to the view that the approach indicated in your memorandum is not the correct one. My basis for this belief lies in the decision to adhere to a fixed financial ceiling for the Department of Defense for the next several years. This decision has generated a requirement for the Joint Chiefs of Staff to study the over-all problem of forces and force deployments. Such a study cannot be made of areas in isolation but must be made on a global basis. I further feel that it is incumbent upon the Joint Chiefs of Staff to arrive at their recommendations in this matter at a relatively early date. The recommendations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, if approved by the Secretary of Defense, would then become the military foundation of such further work to be accomplished by the Planning Board and the National Security Council.
3.: It seems to me that an approach as indicated above will keep NSC consideration of this most important subject in proper perspective, and I recommend its consideration in lieu of the program outlined in your memorandum.

Arthur Radford

Source: Eisenhower Library, Project Clean Up. Top Secret. Copies were sent to the Secretary of Defense; Director, Joint Staff; and the Special Assistant to the JCS for National Security Affairs.↩
Document 125.↩

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, National Security Policy, Volume XIX