154. Memorandum of Conference with the President1
OTHERS PRESENT
- Mr. Harr
- General Goodpaster
Mr. Harr said he had asked to see the President because the changes incident to Mr. Herter’s assuming the Secretaryship of State provided a point in time for review of OCB affairs. A key question is that of State’s chairmanship of the Board. He recalled that this question had been considered with the President, at several times in the past, and that because of this consideration the President had appointed Mr. Herter as Chairman not ex officio but as an individual. The points of concern are first as to State Department domination and lack of impartiality in the conduct of the affairs of the Board (the consequence of which is that other agencies tend to “dry up”), and second that it has been difficult in the past achieving a proper coordination of Mutual Security affairs by the Board with the Board’s chairman being the number two man and the Mutual Security coordinator being the number three man in the State Department hierarchy. With these two posts now reversed, it seems even less likely that effective coordination will be achieved.
[Typeset Page 700]The President spoke at some length on his concept of State Department primacy in matters of foreign policy, indicating that the other departments have more the role of instruments of policy. He recalled that the OCB had been set up to follow through on NSC policies once established—to assure coordinated operations and also the carrying out of policy decisions. The President also noted that the OCB, having taken over from the PSB, is concerned with psychological questions and efforts. In pushing these, he recognized that they verge on foreign policy at times.
As to the Chairmanship, the President said that the only other possibility that came to his mind was that of having Gordon Gray chair the OCB. He would have objectivity and could review its [Facsimile Page 2] actions from the standpoint of policy considerations. The President then asked me for my view on the matter, and I told him that the essential point, in my opinion, was to establish the need for objectivity as well as the relationship of the Board to the Mutual Security Program; I also mentioned that there is some possibility that the OCB mechanism may lose its steam, and that consequently a push to keep up its vitality would be valuable.
I also commented that there is some natural overlapping between foreign policy, which the President views as the affair of the State Department, and security policy, with which the OCB is more directly concerned. Some would feel that the State Department itself is an instrument of security policy, charged with the narrow function of diplomatic activity. This may be extreme view, but the opposite—that any matter that can be classed as foreign policy is primarily the business of the State Department, even though it affects security—is also an extreme view. The President pointed out that the State Department is more than a diplomatic instrument. The Secretary advises him and formulates matters for his consideration. After further discussion he agreed that there was a considerable area of overlap.
The President said he would talk to Mr. Herter about this. Later in the morning he did so.
Brigadier General, USA
- Source: Relationship of State and OCB. Confidential. 2 pp. Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, DDE Diaries. Drafted on May 5.↩