AN IMPORTANT NEW GROUP COMES INTO ACTION

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80M01009A000100120128-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 11, 2013
• Sequence Number: 128
• Publication Date: July 30, 1948
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/07/11 : CIA-RDP80M01009A000100120128-5
THE NEW YORK TIMES ? July 301 1948
In The Nation
An Important New Group
Comes Into Action
By ARTHUR KROCK
WASHINGTON, July 29?When the
plan to integrate the Armed Services
was agreed on, largely the work of
Ferdinand Eberstadt, who was directed
to make a study of the problem by
James Forrestal, then Secretary of the
Navy, it was not widely recognized
that the establishment of the Nam+
Security Council was one of the great
potentials of the plan. And not until
the recent White House conferences on
the situation in Berlin was there any
public evidence that this group has
been put to the use for which it was
established.
But the NSC was employed on that
occasion to exercise the vital function
which the authors of the integration
plan designed for it. The fact has add-
ed significance because the eventual
success of the integration act rests on
two bases, and use of the several agen-
cies created by it is one of them. The
other base is the assumed loyalty and
devotion of those who operate under
the act, as Mr. Forrestal has empha-
sized sever{d times, without which the
new set-up cannot possibly attain its
objectives.
Among those several agencies is an-
other which is indispensable, the Na-
tional Security Resources Board, whose
chairman is Arthur M. Hill. But the
NSC, by reason of its personnel and
its duties, is the major body.
Reports from the White House con-
ference, where the NSC functioned pub-
licly for the first time as envisaged in
the act, were that all, including the
President, expressed satisfaction with
its operating machinery when this was
outlined by the executive secretary of
the council, Rear Admiral Sidney W.
Souers. His choice for this position
was especially useful because he is
close to the President, who is chairman
of the council. The other members are
the Secretaries of State and Defense,
General Marshall and Mr. Forrestal;
and the Secretaries of the Army, the
Navy and the Air Force, Messrs.
Royall, Sullivan and Symington. Ad-
miral Souers is assisted by James S.
Lay Jr. and Harold D. Shantz.
Early Obstacles
This is the group on which depends
a coordinated and sowid, national se-
curity policy at all times, and, though
other sections of the integration law
have erected obstacles in the path of
the objective, and made more difficult
and protracted Mr. Forrestal's effort
to arrive at this, the successful opera-
tion of the NSC and its liaison with the
resources agencies will help to iron
out the early kinks in integration, pro-
vided always that those under Mr.
Forrestal perform according to the
intent of the statute.
The obstacles, however, are several
and they are tough. They were formed
out of compromise, as is usually the
case when antagonistic viewpoints must
be reconciled by political means. One
compromise was, instead of creating an
under-secretary of defense and offi-
cials with the rank of assistant secre-
tary at the heads of the Army, Navy
and Air Force Departments, to have no
under-secreta.ry at all; and to give the
department heads the rank of secre-
tary, with direct access to the? Presi-
dent in the event of disagreement with
their chief, the Secretary of Defense.
The purpose of this was to remove the
fear that otherwise the official last
named would have power so great and
arbitrary that it would in practice ex-
ceed that of the President himself.
The purpose was good. But the ef-
fect has been, unconsciously on those
concerned, to give an exaggerated pub-
lic stature to the three secretaries, who
are actually assistant secretaries. Con-
gress automatically deals with these as
it does with the heads of other execu-
tive departments, and the result is an
occasional open show of disagreement
in the over-all Department of Defense
on the allocation of money and mate-
rials. The most conspicuous instance
of this was when, at the prompting of
a Republicarl. Congress and in duty
bound with respect to the seventy-air-
group controversy, the Air Force took
a positio'n beyond that agreed on by a
Democratic Administration as public
policy.
Chiefs of Staff
Another compromise in the law
--
time to meet the objections oTRI
Navy, was to reject the proposal
a single chief of staff decide sin I
ferences on military questions. WI
opinion is growing that situ: A
might arise?over the value of ar',
ILY
weapons, for example?when nae y
security might require that a d4 c
be thoroughly reviewed for Con!ss
I which ultimately decides what us(ra%
be made of money and allocatiosoll
single chief of staff, with the auts 0
' originally proposed, would be athe
obstruct this, and by his own bad
ment bring about disaster. Mr.'nit
restal is represented as favorincIrc;
present board of three joint k is
despite possible embarassments,etty
preventive of such consequences. paN
Integration is definitely progrE-. $.61
though it will work under han,o;
until the Secretary gets budgetar,
trol and harmony between the Pre_
and the Congress is restored beeal
voters. Meanwhile the NSC anHA
NSRB can accelerate this progrerv.
are doing so. The NSRB is conof
of the Secretaries of State, Tre Chi
Defense, Interior, Agriculture, )illest
merce and Labor, and its secretrnit
G. Lyle Belsey. HE
In observing and discussing tiusp
vance of integration, with enhanc it v
tional security at minimum cor?
maximum efficiency the goal, to N
attention has been paid to theseDEZ
cies, and the maximum use of NSarg
deferred until the crisis over ?r
But with the Secretary of Def di
well-rounded security policy ch Sc
primarily on them. nou
Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/07/11: CIA-RDP80M01009A000100120128-5