275. Memorandum from Gen. Taylor to President Kennedy, July 121

[Facsimile Page 1]

By a memorandum of January 22, 1962, you asked Secretary McNamara how it would be possible to effect an early return of Army reservists to an inactive status while maintaining the current Army strength in Europe and a strong deployable Strategic Army Force in the United States, both within an end strength for Fiscal Year 1963 of 960,000. By the attached memorandum, he replies in effect that these four desiderata cannot be met simultaneously and that most of the impact of the discharge of the reservists next month will be absorbed by the Strategic Army Force in the United States.

Specifically, Mr. McNamara states that it is possible at this time to return only about 10,000 men from Europe so that, instead of a Strategic Army Force of 245,000 in the United States as planned, its strength with be 213,000—a shortage of 32,000. He indicates that in an emergency, support units might be taken out of Europe if it became necessary to deploy Strategic Army Force divisions into possible combat elsewhere in the world.

(Comment: At this late date, there is no solution to the discharge of the reservists other than to accept this weakness in the Strategic Army Force. However, it is not a satisfactory situation for a prolonged period. There are only three ways out of this situation: (a) to increase the end strength of the Army to around a million men; (b) to bring home additional troops from Europe or Korea; or (c) to reduce the number of Army divisions from 16 to about 14. The first alternative would require additional funds for the Defense budget; the second and third pose complex political problems at home and abroad.)

Secretary McNamara also replies to your questions with regard to the possibility of maintaining the combat readiness of the two National Guard division forces after their return to an inactive status. The problem of maintenance of readiness is largely one of keeping the divisions filled with personnel who have had a year or [Facsimile Page 2] more of Federal service. Plans have been drawn to effect this continuity of experience. However, this will be difficult as the percentage of men who have received the year’s active duty training will be down to 50–55% of the full strength of these divisions when they return to Guard status.

[Typeset Page 1082]

In order to understand more clearly the status of readiness of the Strategic Army Force during the coming months, I suggest the dispatch of the attached letter to Secretary McNamara.

Maxwell D. Taylor
  1. Taylor’s comments on McNamara’s memorandum to Kennedy on the readiness of the Strategic Army Force. No classification marking. 2 pp. Kennedy Library, President’s Office Files, Def 7/62–12/62.