Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, Volume III, National Security Policy; Arms Control and Disarmament, Microfiche Supplement

116. Memorandum of Discussion at the 390th NSC Meeting¹

Washington, December 11, 1958

SUBJECT

• Discussion at the 390th Meeting of the National Security Council Thursday, December 11, 1958

Present at the 390th Meeting of the National Security Council were the President of the United States presiding, the Vice President of the United States; the Acting Secretary of State; the Acting Secretary of Defense; the Director, Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization. Also present were the Secretary of the Treasury and the Director, Bureau of the Budget. Also present and participating in Council action on Item 1 were the Attorney General; the Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission; the Chairman, Council of Economic Advisers; the Special Assistants to the President for Science and Technology and for Public Works Planning. Also attending were the Acting Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Director of Central Intelligence; the Acting Director, U.S. Information Agency; the Director, International Cooperation Administration; the Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs; Assistant Secretaries of State Gerard C. Smith and Livingston T. Merchant; the Deputy Director, Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization, The Assistant to the President; the Deputy Assistant to the President for Congressional Affairs; the Special Assistants to the President for National Security Affairs and for Security Operations Coordination; the White House Staff Secretary; the Assistant White House Staff Secretary; the Naval Aide to the President; the Executive Secretary, NSC; and the Deputy Executive, NSC.

There follows a summary of the discussion at the meeting and the main points taken.

1. MEASURES TO CARRY OUT THE CONCEPT OF SHELTER

(NSC 5807; NSC 5807/1; NSC Actions Nos. 1882 and 1948–b; Memos for NSC from Executive Secretary, same subject, dated November 5 and 18, and December 4, 1958)

Mr. Gordon Gray explained briefly the nature of this item and called on Governor Hoegh to summarize the main points in his report. (A copy of Mr. Gray’s briefing note is filed in the Minutes of the Meeting.)

After describing in general the status of measures to carry out the concept of shelter, Governor Hoegh went to the main point which was his specific recommendation for one additional measure to carry out the concept of shelter, namely, to provide fall-out shelters by modification of existing Federal buildings on a selected basis. Governor Hoegh’s recommendation envisaged a cost of this procedure of approximately $5 million during the next fiscal year.

After Governor Hoegh had explained the reasons for making this recommendation and the great need for a Federal example, he pointed out that the Joint Chiefs of Staff had signified their approval of the recommendation. General Taylor, the Acting Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, indicated that the approval of the Joint Chiefs was to be interpreted in terms of the principle but not the dollar costs.

The President referred to the fact that in the course of his remarks earlier, Governor Hoegh had referred to an individual who had built an extremely confortable, commodious, and safe blast shelter at a cost of only $15,000. The President inquired how deep this shelter was and how it was possible to build one for as little as $15,000. Governor Hoegh replied by pointing out that the shelter in question was built only to withstand blast pressures of 30 psi. although it did qualify as a blast shelter.

The President said that the reason he had asked this question was that he himself had long been undecided as to whether or not it would be a good thing for the President to build such a shelter and thus set an example to other people or whether if he went ahead and built such a shelter, the effect would be to scare other people to death. But all his calculations had added up to a cost much larger than $15,000. Governor Hoegh said he would undertake to get plans for the $15,000 shelter to which he had referred for the President and the President said that he would very much like to see them.

The President then asked if there were any other comments. The Director, Bureau of the Budget said that he would like to make four points regarding Governor Hoegh’s recommendation for a $5 million appropriation to provide fall-out shelters on a selected basis in existing Federal buildings. The first point, said Mr. Stans, was to warn that the proposed $5 million program might end up by becoming only the down payment on a much larger program. He reminded the members of the Council of an earlier $90 million estimate for providing fall-out shelter in U.S. post offices over the country. He therefore doubted whether this program would stop with an expenditure of $5 million.

Secondly, Mr. Stans said, he wished to raise a question as to timing. He pointed out that Governor Hoegh had already referred to research prototype programs which were being undertaken in order to determine the best type of shelter. Five million dollars had been allocated to this program. Would it not be premature to proceed to build shelters in existing Federal buildings until the results of the research and prototype programs had come in?

Mr. Stans’ third point related to the nation-wide survey now underway to determine what existed by way of shelter in existing buildings. Should not this survey likewise be completed and analyzed before Governor Hoegh’s new recommendation was adopted?

His further and final point, said Mr. Stans, was to suggest that some of the $5 million which had been allocated to the above-mentioned prototype shelter program might also be used to provide for shelters in existing Federal buildings and thus serve a dual purpose of building prototypes and setting an example of shelters in Federal buildings. Accordingly, Mr. Stans recommended that action on Governor Hoegh’s recommendation be deferred for six months or a year until the results of the various surveys had come in.

The President expressed relief at being confronted with a figure of $5 million which was low in comparison with the estimated costs of some of the shelter programs which the Council had considered in the past. He added that he did not wish to argue the matter of the $5 million for Governor Hoegh’s recommendation and said that the two or three officials most concerned should meet with him in the next few days and decide how to act on this recommendation. On the other hand, he did not believe that those in charge of the shelter program should cease in their efforts to determine what it is best for the country to do in this field. We are, of course, now discounting the likelihood of a worldwide holocaust as a result of nuclear war. Nevertheless, we are also anxious to give our people a feeling of confidence so we were on a kind of knife edge between providing some degree of confidence through the medium of a shelter program while at the same time not scaring our citizens to death by too elaborate a program. It was not, said the President, that he felt he knew exactly what to do about it and he therefore wanted to ponder the problem before adding anything more.

The President also commented on the fact that we were trying to prevent the General Services Administration from building any more new Federal buildings.

Governor Hoegh agreed that this latter statement was correct and explained that it was because we were unlikely to have examples of shelters in newly built Federal buildings that made it seem important to him for the Federal Government to set an example through the means of providing shelter in modified existing Federal buildings.

Secretary Anderson expressed the opinion that it might be wise to select and concentrate on one example of shelter in an existing Federal building. We would thus be doing something by way of setting an example for the people of the U.S. and would also in the course of so doing learn what is the best kind of shelter to build. Governor Hoegh replied to Secretary Anderson that the OCDM believed that we already knew pretty well what was needed in the way of building fall-out shelters.

The President concluded the discussion by stating that we should wait a day or two and then make our decision.

The National Security Council:

a. Noted and discussed the report on the subject by the Director, Office of Civil and Defense Mobilization, contained in the enclosures to the reference memoranda of November 5 and 18; in the light of the views of the Joint Chiefs of Staff thereon, transmitted by the reference memorandum of December 4, 1958, and the views of the Director, Bureau of the Budget as presented orally at the meeting.

b. Noted the President’s statement deferring action for a short period on the recommendations presented in a above, pending further consideration of these recommendations by the President and the other officials most directly concerned.

[Omitted here is the remainder of the memorandum.]

S. Everett Gleason

1. Source: Agenda item 1: Measures To Carry Out the Concept of Shelter. Top Secret; Eyes Only. Extracts—5 pp. Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, NSC Records.