33. Memorandum of Conference with the President1
OTHERS PRESENT
- Secretary McElroy
- Secretary Quarles
- General Twining
- Mr. Stans
- Dr. Killian
- General Persons
- General Goodpaster
Secretary McElroy gave the President a sheet showing proposed augmentations to the military budget.
Before discussing the details, the President asked what the Pacific missile range is, and why it should be assigned to the Navy. Mr. Quarles indicated that it is to be a national missile range, and said the Navy will be serving as the executive agent, adding that the range will be available to the Services and that it will permit launching satellites on Polar orbits.
The President said he saw several groups engaged in solid propellant work—the Air Force, the Navy, and ARPA. He thought it should all be given to ARPA. Mr. Quarles said that ARPA is intended to pull together the development of solid propellants; it is not intended, however, to be the manager of the missile development aspects (i.e. the hardware).
Referring to the MINUTEMAN project, the President said it looks as though the Air Force is getting into long-range solid rockets, and he questioned whether the second generation should be approached in this way. Mr. Quarles confirmed that the intention was to start a solid ICBM development in the Air Force. The President said that he thought that this should not be assigned to any of the Services, but Mr. McElroy reported that he had assigned the development and operational use of all ICBMs and IRBMs to the Air Force. Dr. Killian said he understood that the $75 million assigned to the Air Force for the MINUTEMAN project would not include any hardware, but would be [Facsimile Page 2] purely for development activities for the missile itself, as distinguished from its propellant. One of the Defense representatives confirmed that this is correct.
The President said he thought there is duplication between the POLARIS and the MINUTEMAN programs. Mr. Quarles said the MINUTEMAN is based on a more advanced warhead, more advanced guidance and propellant, and more stages. The President indicated he [Typeset Page 118] had reservations as to the wisdom of this way of going about future missile development.
After a brief discussion, the President indicated agreement with the proposal for GAM–77, as a penetration aid for the B–52.
The President then asked what the NRRO proposal is, and why it is assigned to Naval Research. Mr. Quarles said that it is the radio telescope project, and that Naval Research has the best experience for this. The President spoke strongly that we have not freed our minds from existing systems and organizations. We continually find ourselves prisoners of free-wheeling activities that have been going on for a number of years in each of the Services. Mr. McElroy said he thought that the NRRO should be an ARPA project, and the President strongly agreed. The President said he would not like to see large sums of money being expended for intelligence activities by a multitude of services and agencies. Ideally, the function should be in the CIA. Practically, we should put such activities more and more into ARPA. He asked that this be put into ARPA. Dr. Killian pointed out the tie-in between this project and some of the NASA activities, and the President confirmed that there should be coordination as the project develops.
The President again said that we are prisoners of custom, and of particular past history in which we have had all of these separate research activities. Mr. McElroy said the activity would be placed under the proposed Under Secretary for Research and Engineering in the new scheme of organization.
Mr. Stans recommended that the proposal be put into the budget process, for review and screening. He said he wanted to point out where we seem to be going. The budget has already gotten to the level of $41 billion for FY 59, and $42 billion plus if these accelerations are [Facsimile Page 3] included. There is a built-in expansion of a very large magnitude, since these proposals are still in the research and development stage. Mr. McElroy said that we could not hold to $38 billion with the world in its present state. The President pointed out that the civilian and military chiefs in Defense have a very heavy responsibility, and that he is tending to lose confidence in some of their recommendations when they come in with proposals for $6 billion to $10 billion augmentations.
The President then recalled that the $400 billion shown for POLARIS is going to give us just two submarines. While he did not challenge this proposal, he did feel that this simply confirmed that aircraft carriers have run their course. Mr. McElroy said that he has been very much concerned on this subject. A wide variety of delivery systems seems to be emerging. He now has the Joint Chiefs of Staff studying what would be the best “mix” of delivery systems.
The President indicated he supported the continuation of the B–52 production line as recommended.
[Typeset Page 119]He indicated that because some of the supplementals have been for such things as bases, he was hoping that the program would not level off at a permanently higher level than $40 billion a year.
Mr. McElroy said that if it were possible to have a determination of policy before the end of the month, this would help him with the Johnson Committee.
The President concluded by saying that he hoped we could get our organization plan through the Congress. Thereby we would get money into the hands of the Secretary of Defense and he could exercise much stronger control.
Brigadier General, USA
- Source: Defense budget and missile development. Secret. 3 pp. Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, DDE Diaries. Drafted on March 21.↩