<--PREV Doc #190  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #192 Document #191; May 14, 1953 To Kaufman Thuma Keller Series: EM, WHCF, Official File 3-Q The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIV - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part II: Settling into "the long pull"; May 1953 to August 1953 Chapter 3: "A time for continued vigilance"   Dear Mr. Keller:1 Thank you very much for your letter of the twelfth.2 I have discussed fairly briefly your guided missiles program3 with Charlie Wilson, and both he and I are anxious to talk with you personally about it. Would it be possible for you to come to Washington some time within the next couple of weeks to talk the whole matter over with us jointly? If you could arrange it, I suggest you call my appointment secretary, Mr. Thomas Stephens, here at the White House, and he will be glad to make the date at our mutual convenience. While I understand that some of the phases of the program are in good working order, I hope very much that you won't feel you must quickly relinquish your duties. I understand that Secretary Wilson would very much like to have you retain control of the program for at least another six months. This is one of the things we should like to talk to you about.4 With best wishes 1 For background on Keller, Director of Guided Missiles for the Armed Forces and Chrysler Corporation's chairman of the board, see Galambos, Columbia University, no. 991, and NATO and the Campaign of 1952, no. 866. 2 On May 12 Keller had briefly summarized his work as head of the guided-missiles program since 1950, when former President Truman had appointed him to that post. He told Eisenhower that Truman had asked him to "speed up the development" of the program and to "simplify it in the interest of more rapid progress, and to put it on a basis of orderly procedure," with a special presidential instruction to "push the air defense missiles first." Keller described his success in expediting the Nike antiaircraft-missiles program (see no. 943) and said that according to an understanding he had reached with Secretary of Defense-designate Wilson in November 1952, he would be ready to leave government service after the first of July. 3 On the guided-missiles program see Doris M. Condit, The Test of War: 1950-1953 (1988), vol. II of History of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, ed. Alfred Goldberg, 2 vols. to date (Washington, D.C., 1984- ), pp. 473-75; Edmund Beard, Developing the ICBM: A Study in Bureaucratic Politics (New York, 1976), pp. 123-28, 145-56; and Ernest J. Yanarella, The Missile Defense Controversy: Strategy, Technology, and Politics, 1955-1972 (Lexington, Ky., 1977), pp. 27-29, 37-38. On Eisenhower's own involvement with the problem as Chief of Staff of the Army see Galambos, Chief of Staff, nos. 674 and 972. 4 On May 18 Keller would write Stephens to tell him of his willingness to confer with Eisenhower and Wilson, and the three men would meet for lunch on June 16. Keller would remain head of the guided-missiles program until September, when Eisenhower's defense reorganization (see no. 207) eliminated his position (see Yanarella, Missile Defense Controversy, pp. 37-38; Wilson to Keller, Sept. 23, 1953; Eisenhower to Keller, Sept. 28, 1953; and Keller to Eisenhower, Oct. 5, 1953. All papers are in the same file as this document). For developments see nos. 943 and 1663. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Kaufman Thuma Keller, 14 May 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 191. 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/191.cfm <--PREV Doc #190  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #192

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