MISSILE LAG LAID TO SYMINGTON

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000700450042-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 5, 2005
• Sequence Number: 42
• Publication Date: February 11, 1960
• Content Type: NSPR

BALTIMORE SUN FEB 11 -11960
Approved For Release 2Q ?/01/27: CIA-RDP75-00149R00
X &s
MISSILEJ LAG LAID
TO.SYMINGTON
`Record As.-Airforce Seire-
taryCited$y GOP
By fOZ#D NoTt'1'ON
twasliington,Burecu of The th'nl
Washington, Feb. 10-The GOP
today brandedr'Senator Syft7ing-
Imissjjts development.
Presidential aspirant, as the
"architect of the lost 'years" of j
tr_--- _ .~__p -. _--Y---,'decla"Ies,` Symington presided'
cans are distorting the history of
the 1940's,,." over the `lost years' in United
State missile devel"opment.
Symington was Secretary of the I~Re pa ihle Indication"
Air Force in` the' latter half of the.; '~
.,
An examination of those
194o's, at a 'tithe when missileyeans ' the statement adds,
research was all but abandoned gives one possible indication
For ,sometime he has been' why Symington is ieluFtant to
leading the Democratic party's. enter Presidential `primaries and
assault on. the Administration for; thereby open up that record for
its alleged failure to do enough; public examination by his Senate
or spend enough'. to insure the! irivals."
spen, or will spend, a total of,
missile research.
"Symington has selected mili-
tary matters as the 'core of his
floundering campaign for the
Democratic Presidential ' nomina-
"He thus invited examination
of his personal record of accom-
plishment in this field-in the years
in which he was Secretary of
the Air Force, or-Assistant Sec-
retary of War for Air in the Tru-
man Administration.
"In the years that he served
only $1,105,0060. `.
It points gut that 'these were
the years When the Russians were
busy acquiring their big head
start in the rocket field, 1947-1951.
The committee notes that, in
contrast with the Democratic rec-
ord of the late forties, the Re-
publican Administration, in the
Pentagon, the Air Force, spending'.
years during 'which Symington
Jlp;
was a ci
vilian official at the
the Republica) "Adrrministration."
The GOP committee released;'
figures shown that in the five)
coming in the r frustrated effort!
tee today, as _ 'a ,horrifying ex-
ample of how desperate he .and
the I oh National Commit-
nation's safety. !
lose "top-secret' Centr 111-
;ence gelrcy estima es
And they declare that fl
Democratic leadership should see)
to it that he gets no such ,in-
formation,
"Distorting -he history' of the
1940s." he, snapped, "will not
close the missile gap of the 1960's,
nor strengthen our positiop` at the
coming sumnilt"conferenee."
Digging intt the newspaper files.
the GOl' gleefully ? quotes the
words, of two f Symington's Sen-
ate eolleagu ; to back up its
charge that 'the. Mifsouri Senator
is the man. tohb)ame for the mis-
sile lag..
It quotes 'Senator Johnson M.,
(Texas)' as stating on Julky 12, 1050,
three months after Symn>fgtgii ]eft
_ the. pentagon, that "during,