LETTER TO MR. CLARENCE L. JOHNSON FROM [AWD]

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01731R000200130009-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 14, 2003
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: September 27, 1959
• Content Type: LETTER

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ER. U - 7756/A
27 September 1959
Mr. Clarence L. Johnson
Vice President
Advanced Development Projects
Lockheed Aircraft Corporation
Bnrb* . California
Dear Kelly:
I sincerely appreciated your letter of
September 15, 1959. 1 have followed the developments
referred to in your letter and I look forward to the
inset cooperation with you in the new and important
enterprise which we are jointly under.
14140 share your views about Dick.
know of any more like him that want a job, I am always
in the market. I know that you got to Washington from
time to time and sincerely hope you will let me know
when you are next here.
AWD/3i
1 - DCI
ER/basic "
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LOCKIIEED AIRCRAFT CORPORATION
September 15, 1959
PERSONAL
Mr. Allan W. Dulles
Director, Central Intelligence Agency
United States Government
Washington, D. C.
I have not had the opportunity to thank you on behalf of Lockheed for
placing with us another assignment of a very interesting nature. Over
the past year and a half we have been engaged in a very interesting
and tough competition with another aircraft manufacturer. There have
been times when I have been forced to honest technical conclusions
which have been questioned by some of your evaluation group, but I am
sure that the discussions which these beliefs provoked have been of
great benefit to both of us in trying to grab hold of a very difficult tech-
nical problem.
I want to assure you of Lockheed's determination and promise to under-
take this new assignment in the expectation of meeting all of our commit-
ments and of exceeding them, not only in over-all performance and range,
but also in the more involved and difficult field of another nature. We go
into the program with great confidence, buoyed up by the faith you and
the others who made the decision have indicated in us.
I could not close this letter without expressing my very high regard for
Mr. Richard Bissell, with whom we have worked for a number of years
now. Throughout our very complex evaluation he has always been most
fair and helpful, and I deeply appreciate the great problems and pres-
sures he was subjected to in choosing between various technical ap-
proaches made by both competitors. I know how close we came to losing
this assignment a number of times, but I know in all cases it was a
question only of technical merit that was influencing Dick. The country
could well use a few dozen more like him.
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Mr. Allan W. Dulles 15 September 1959
We do not underestimate the character of our new assignment, which I
believe to be at least ten times as hard as any we have ever undertaken
before. We are, however, by no means perturbed about this situation
and are going forward most enthusiastically.
With highest personal regards.
Sincerely,
Clarenc L. Johnson
Vice Pressii ent
Advanced Development Projects
C LJ: vmp
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