68. Diary Entry by the President, March 30, 19561

Conversation with Bernard Baruch, March 28, 1956.

Mr. Baruch has written me or otherwise sent me messages several times concerning the need for greater progress in the guided missile field.2 Because he has, in two great wars, been deeply involved in America’s logistic efforts, his opinions are certainly worth considering—if for no other reason than because of his standing and reputation in the public mind. In any event, I have explained to him the world situation as I see it, with special reference to the relative capabilities of the Soviets and ourselves in our capacity for inflicting destruction upon the other.

I pointed out that if our calculations are anywhere near correct, there is no question that in a matter of hours we could inflict very great, even decisive, damage upon the productive power of the Soviet Union and its satellites. The guided missile is therefore merely another, or auxiliary, method of delivering over the Soviet Union the kind of destructive force that is represented in the hydrogen bomb. Until we found the way to make a bomb of megaton size and put it in a small package, capable of being transported by ballistic methods, the ballistic missile was not even a serious threat.

I further pointed out that the ballistic missile and its early production will have greater effect on world psychological reaction because people see it as the “ultimate” weapon, and have a picture of guided missiles raining out of the skies in almost uncounted numbers; it is extremely important that the Soviets do not get ahead of us in the general organization of our atomic bomb effort, and the money we are devoting to it. In[On] this last point, I tried to show him that we are already employing so many of the nation’s scientists and research facilities that even the expenditure of a vastly greater amount could scarcely produce any additional results.

I also explained to him that I had decided not to make a “Manhattan Project” out of the research effort. Slow and varied type of development has been going on in this field, for some years, and the operating people who know most about the matter are in the services. Moreover, each of the services has in its direct employ, or through contract with large firms, the only scientists who have been constantly engaged in this work. This means that the matter must be kept in the hands of the services, but I do agree with Mr. Baruch that the civilian boss of the job should be a real boss and not a mere expediter.

[Page 276]

The conversation then turned to trade. Since in the past he had spoken to me rather feelingly about the wickedness of any of our so-called friends who deal with the Communists, I was quite astonished to find that he now really favors a general plan of removing all restrictions on all trade with the Reds. This conforms to my view, except that we know that there are a few of our types of machinery that the Soviets want as patterns and models. These I would keep on the prohibited list. Otherwise, however, I believe that the effort to dam up permanently the natural currents of trade, particularly between such areas as Japan and the neighboring Asian mainland, will be defeated.

DDE 3
  1. Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, DDE Diaries. Secret.
  2. See Document 55.
  3. Printed from a copy that bears these typed initials.