<--PREV Doc #132  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #134 Document #133; April 6, 1953 To Charles Erwin Wilson Series: EM, AWF, DDE Diaries Series ; Category: Secret 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: There has been one item on my mind that I forgot to mention at our meeting Saturday.1 As you know, the Military Standing Group is regularly stationed here in Washington; its civilian counterpart--or, I suppose, technically speaking its civilian superior--is located in Paris.2 I believe that it would be a worthwhile effort towards coordination and better understanding to require the Standing Group to go to Paris for a month's work in intimate association with the NATO Council. I believe that such a visit would be very profitable because there are many things of a military nature to be studied and examined there, just as there are many subjects of an economic and political character of which the Standing Group should have intimate knowledge.3 You understand that if this is to take place, it will have to be done on proper request of the governments--probably at the Council of Ministers. Consequently, it could be proposed, if you approve of the idea, at that meeting, as a recommendation from the American group.4 Such a tour of duty would give the Standing Group a chance, on the ground, to look into such matters as size of headquarters, composition of headquarters, supply lines, bases, and all other matters involving infra-structure. I venture to suggest that such a visit would be feasible and profitable right after the close of the next Ministers' meeting in Europe. Incidentally, this brings to mind another point. When the new appointment to the position of Chief of Staff is made, I would consider the question as to whether that individual should occupy, also, a position on the Standing Group. At present this is the case. I personally believe that our man on the Standing Group should serve, in his own right, as a representative of the Secretary of Defense and of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.5 This would mean that he should be of the calibre of General Hull.6 I believe that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff cannot function efficiently if he is burdened with this extra work. This is a suggestion--not a directive. 1 Eisenhower had met with Wilson at 10:00 a.m. on April 4; early on the sixth he held his regular Monday conference with JCS Chairman General Omar Bradley. 2 The NATO command structure consisted in part of a military Standing Group (made up of representatives of the U.S., British, and French chiefs of staff) responsible to civilian deputies of the North Atlantic Council; a single Standing Group liaison officer served in Paris as a link between the NAC and the Standing Group (see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, nos. 660 and 694; Hastings Lionel Ismay, NATO: The First Five Years, 1949-1954 [Netherlands, 1954], p. 69; and n. 5 below). 3 NATO Secretary-General Lord Ismay had visited the United States from March 11 to March 21, meeting with Eisenhower on the twelfth. On the following day, in a session with NATO and U.S. officials, he expressed interest in building closer ties between the NAC and the Standing Group (State, Foreign Relations, 1952-1954, vol. V, Western European Security, pt. 1, pp. 361-62). 4 The NAC would meet in Paris April 23-25, and as usual the Standing Group attended (New York Times, Apr. 18, 1953). Published accounts of the session contained no reference to the proposed Standing Group trip to Paris (see ibid., pp. 373-90). 5 As of January 1953 JCS Chairman Bradley had appointed a deputy, Vice-Admiral Arthur C. Davis, to represent him on the Standing Group. Secretary Wilson would appoint General J. Lawton Collins as the U.S. member of that body (Watson, History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, vol. V, 1953-1954, p. 285; Ismay, NATO, p. 83). 6 General John E. Hull (A.B. Miami University of Ohio 1917), had served as Vice Chief of Staff of the Army since 1951. Later in 1953 Hull would assume command of U.N. forces in Korea; he would retire in 1955. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Secret To Charles Erwin Wilson, 6 April 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 133. 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/133.cfm <--PREV Doc #132  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #134

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