Presidential Papers, Doc#655 To Ralph Jarron Cordiner, 21 April 1958. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower
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Document #655; April 21, 1958
To Ralph Jarron Cordiner
Series: EM, WHCF, Official File 3-VV
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIX - The Presidency: Keeping the Peace
Part IV: Recession and Reform; February 1958 to May 1958
Chapter 9: "The problems inherent in this job"

 

Dear Ralph: I am grateful for your recent letter. Two points caught my eye at once. The first one was the aptness of your analogy between proper organization within a business company and within the Defense Department.1

The other point was in your offer to be of practical help in spreading an understanding of the need for effective organization in the Defense Department. I take you up on this by sending to you for criticism a draft of a letter that I expect to write to every business man of my acquaintance.2

I request that you examine this draft carefully and give me any suggestions that you believe would make it more concise, hardhitting and persuasive. As quickly as you do this, I plan to start my letter-writing campaign!3

With warm regard, Sincerely

1 Cordiner had written on April 16, 1958, to express his support for the Administration's proposed reorganization of the Department of Defense (for background see no. 630). Citing his background as Vice-Chairman of the War Production Board during World War II and Chairman of the Defense Advisory Committee on Professional and Technical Compensation in 1956 and 1957 (see no. 73), Cordiner said he found the average citizen "very uninformed as to the impact of technology on the activities of the Department of Defense." He believed, moreover, that the average citizen did not understand how difficult it was for the President and the Secretary of Defense to provide leadership under current law. "The present situation within the Department," he wrote, "is not too dissimilar to a procedure in corporate operations that would permit each individual officer to report separately and independently to the Board of Directors, bypassing the chief executive officer entirely. This, of course, would be a completely unworkable arrangement and would not be tolerated very long, as measurement through profit and loss criteria with aggressive competitors organized on a basis of delegated authority would soon show the fallacy of such a procedure." He urged the President to "take this issue to the people in a series of presentations."

2 Cordiner had said that while it was obvious that he was cheering "from a comfortable seat in the grandstand," he offered to join Eisenhower "on the playing field and run interference," if he could be of any help. On Eisenhower's letter to members of the business community see no. 678.

3 Cordiner would respond on April 24 with several suggested changes in the draft document. He would suggest that the President emphasize the necessity for changes in the organization of the Defense Department that would permit flexible responses to technological innovations in defense strategy. Eisenhower appears to have adopted this suggestion; see Eisenhower to Cordiner, May 2, 1958. All papers are in the same file as the document.

Bibliographic reference to this document:
Eisenhower, Dwight D. To Ralph Jarron Cordiner, 21 April 1958. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 655. 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/second-term/documents/655.cfm

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