294. Memorandum From Secretary of Commerce Connor to President Johnson1
SUBJECT
- Economy Automobiles
After discussions with Bob McNamara and Jack McCloy and later with Nick Katzenbach, and after reading and thinking about Nick’s September 23 memo to you, and Jack McCloy’s attached memo of August 25 [27]2 that he prepared at my request to summarize past activities, I suggest that we drop the subject.
Not only are the legal problems serious and apparently insurmountable, but from a competitive business point of view I’m convinced that sooner or later at least one U.S. manufacturer will enter this price range market when the economic climate is right, and I think this should be a free enterprise decision—my old friend Jack Bingham to the contrary notwithstanding.
- Source: Washington National Records Center, RG 40, Secretary of Commerce Files: FRC 71 A 6617, White House, September–October. No classification marking. An attached transmittal form to Trowbridge, September 29, reads: “The Secretary said today to ask you to give him a preliminary report based upon the work already done; and to tell you that no further work on this subject will be needed.” A handwritten note on the transmittal form reads: “Trowbridge ready to report.” No record of his report was found.↩
- Documents 293 and 291.↩
- Printed from a copy that bears this typed signature.↩