<--PREV Doc #196  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #198 Document #197; May 19, 1953 To Carl Andrew Spaatz Series: EM, AWF, Administration Series ; Category: Personal and confidential 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 Tooey:1 I hear from someone that you are in a very unhappy mood about air forces and have been writing in a critical vein of what this administration is trying to do.2 Certainly I have never been one to quarrel with anyone else's honest opinion; this I think you know. But I do wonder how far you have dug down into the roots of the problem with which we are faced. No one believes more than I in the need for air power; but I hope that I am not numbered among that fringe that can be classed only as fanatical in their "misconceptions." The only point of this note is to assure you that if you believe something is going on which has a sinister or unfortunate import for the United States, I would be glad to have you come in to see me and discuss the matter.3 I have been working on this problem for four solid months and while I am far from claiming that I have gotten any perfect answers, I do think that I see some parts of it more clearly than I did originally.4 With warm personal regard, As ever 1 Spaatz, now retired, was a former Air Force Chief of Staff (see Galambos, NATO and the Campaign of 1952, no. 250). 2 In "An Inadequate Defense Budget" (Newsweek, May 18, 1953), Spaatz had argued that the Eisenhower defense program failed to provide "the kind of Air Force we need or a broad enough defense-production base." Spaatz favored heaviest U.S. spending on air power in order to offset the Soviet superiority in land forces. He believed that Soviet air strength was on the rise. "With airplanes flying at the speed of sound and Malenkov's stockpile of atomic bombs growing greater each day," he concluded, "this air threat is a dangerous reality. We all want economy, but not at the expense of security." At the end of April Eisenhower had announced that his Administration would adhere to a concept of steady, long-term military expenditures as opposed to "maximum attainable strength for some specified date." On May 7 he had sent Congress a $36 billion defense budget for fiscal year 1954, trimming $5.2 billion from Truman's plan for that year and $2.3 billion from the 1953 spending levels. The President proposed maintaining Army expenditures while lowering the Navy budget (from $13.2 billion in 1953 appropriations to $9.7 billion) and severely cutting Air Force spending (from $22.3 billion in 1953 to $11.7 billion), thus sacrificing plans for a 143-wing force by 1955 (Public Papers of the Presidents: Eisenhower, 1953, pp. 225-38; New York Times, May 1, 8, 10, 1953). For background on "long haul" military planning and the 1954 defense budget see State, Foreign Relations, 1952-1954, vol. II, National Security Affairs, pt. 1, pp. 258-327; Watson, History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 1953-1954, pp. 61-63; and Warner R. Schilling, Paul Y. Hammond, and Glenn H. Snyder, Strategy, Politics, and Defense Budgets (New York, 1962), pp. 393-406; see also no. 207). For developments see no. 291. 3 Spaatz would meet with the President late the afternoon of May 29 (see the Chronology). 4 This same evening Eisenhower delivered a national radio address on his estimate of defense needs, the structure of the defense budget, and the need to maintain current revenue levels. "There is no given number of ships--no specific number of divisions--no magic number of air wings in the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps--no special number of billions of dollars--that will automatically guarantee our security," he said. In setting the defense plans and eliminating waste the President had rejected "special pleaders both in and out of the military services." He said that his Administration would put "major emphasis on air power, which daily becomes a more important factor in war" (Public Papers of the Presidents: Eisenhower, 1953, pp. 310-11). Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Personal and confidential To Carl Andrew Spaatz, 19 May 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 197. 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/197.cfm <--PREV Doc #196  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #198

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