Presidential Papers, Doc#120 Personal and confidential To Charles Erwin Wilson, 1 April 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower
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Document #120; April 1, 1953
To Charles Erwin Wilson
Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series ; Category: Personal and confidential
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIV - The Presidency: The Middle Way
Part I: Charting a New Course; January 1953 to April 1953
Chapter 2: "A number of misunderstandings": Party and International Struggles

 

Memorandum for the Secretary of Defense: The next time we have one of our talks, please remind me to discuss with you a point of view I have heard attributed to an Assistant Secretary in the Navy named Floberg.1

This point of view affects the responsibility and position of a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when he meets with his colleagues in discharging collective responsibilities of advising the Secretary of Defense and the President.2 While I cannot be certain that my reports are correct, I must say that the point of view I have heard expressed is so inapplicable as to be almost alarming.

1 John Forrest Floberg (LL.B. Harvard 1939), a navy lieutenant commander at the end of World War II, had served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Air since 1949. Secretary of Defense Wilson had retained him and several other high-level Truman Defense Department appointees as experienced specialists. In July Eisenhower would nominate James H. Smith, Jr., to succeed Floberg (New York Times, Jan. 7, July 7, 1953).

2 For Eisenhower's strong belief that the Joint Chiefs should give the Secretary of Defense objective advice and counsel unrelated to their particular service interests see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, no. 130.

Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal and confidential To Charles Erwin Wilson, 1 April 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 120. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/120.cfm

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