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

135. Diary Entry by the President, August 5, 1957¹

August 5, 1957

1. This morning I made two telephone calls to the Defense Department,² the first to the Chief of Staff of the Army, General Taylor.

Last week Mr. Wilson had a press conference in which he spoke very facetiously about an alleged Army intention of building an 800 mile ballistic missile. He spoke about it in terms implying strong disapproval, and he also implied that the Army had undoubtedly acted without any authority from the Secretary of Defense.

A memorandum to me from the Army³ states that the proposition that was mentioned was incorrectly described in the question addressed to Mr. Wilson. On top of this, the Army has done nothing whatsoever in extending the range of the particular missile in question (I believe it is the Redpath)⁴ but requested authority to introduce a solid propellant which it is alleged would give the missile an effective range of 400 to 500 miles (not 800 as alleged in the question directed to Mr. Wilson). The Army also states that its plan would be to use this weapon to get greater flexibility, but dependent completely upon the Air Force for reconnaissance necessary to report targets and results of findings.

Actually the whole proposition seems sensible to me, particularly in that development costs would be limited to modification for the change in fuel.

I suggested that the Chief of Staff seek an appointment at once with the Secretary of Defense, telling the Secretary that he was doing so at my instruction.

I am disturbed by the implication left in the newspaper stories that the Departments are operating in defiance of the Secretary of Defense’s orders when, as a matter of fact, it appears to me that the Army did everything possible to keep this matter strictly within the limits of regular and proper procedure.

A copy of the Army memorandum is filed with this account.

2. My second call was to General White of the Air Force. A newspaper story states that in a recent public speech, he made comparisons between the Air Force and its sister services in the matter of their readiness to appreciate modern conditions and adapt their methods and equipment to those conditions.

I told him that I had no objection to his praising his own service as much as he pleased, but I did object to any representative of one of the services comparing himself or his own service with the others to their disadvantage and his own advantage. This in my opinion is destructive in terms of the whole general service morale.

It is the old question of whether service men are working first of all for their own service or for the good of the United States.

General White agreed that this had been an error, but stated that the document had been submitted to the Secretary of Defense before delivery as a public speech. He said also that he called specific attention to the paragraph that aroused my concern, and that the speech was approved by the Defense Department without comment. I suggested to him that hereafter if he had any doubt about any feelings that might be hurt, he consult with the Chiefs of Staff rather than with the Defense Department staff whose concern for such remarks might not be so acute.

1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, DDE Diaries. Top Secret.
2. A shorter summary of these two telephone calls, which Eisenhower made at 10:23 a.m. and 10:27 a.m., is ibid., DDE Diaries, White House Telephone Memoranda.
3. Not found in the Eisenhower Library.
4. Eisenhower presumably is referring to Redstone.