EXECUTIVE OFFICE O F THE PRESIDENT
BUREAU OF THE BUDGET
WASHINGTON 25. D.C.
November 27, 1950
SUBJECT:
Conversation with General Joseph T. McNarney (2.S.A.F.)
Chairman, Kanagement Committee, O f f i c e of t h e S e c r e t a r y
of Defense
The appointment was arranged by Henry Locimis of Websterts
o f f i c e of the RDB, Marx Leva having thought t h i s a more a p p r o p r i a t e
way than arranging i t through h i s o f f i c e .
I s p e n t two hours with Ceneral UcXarney this afternoon
i n which I l e a r n e d very l i t t l e o t h e r than t h a t t h e problem of
o r g a n i z a t i o n and functioning of t h e €DE i s a v e r y d i f f i c u l t one.
General McNarney i s c l e a r l y a very capable m a n . He c a s t
v i r t u a l l y no l i g h t on t h i s s u b j e c t , however, although he d i d
p r a c t i c a l l y a l l of t h e t a l k i n g . Whether this was from ignorance,
o r evasiveness, o r both, I do not !mom. However, he t a l k e d
around the s u b j e c t a t considerable l e n g t h and when brought t o
t h e s p e c i f i c questions d i d not s t a y on them long.
E s s e n t i a l l y he would neduce t h e n u b e r of comnittees of t h e
RDB and f t s t r e n g t h e n f lthem. He would l i k e w i s e strengthen t h e
staff of the ZDB. He would n o t change t h e composition o f t h e
membership on the DB. Xe s a i d t h a t sane e f f o r t had been made t o
i n t e r e s t t h e Services i n changing t h e i r r e p r e s e n t a t i o n on t h e
RDB from t h e p r e s e n t members t o f u l l t i m e *junior
o f f i c e r s but
t h a t t h e Services were n o t i n favor. He f e e l s t h e r e f o r e that i t
i s hopeless t o t r y t o f o r c e agreement upon them and t h a t t h e
Services must be continued t o b e . p e m i t t e d t o nominate t h e i r
own membership. T h i s was i n t e r e s t i n g . He f e e l s t h a t about
one b i l l i o n two, t o one b i l l i o n t h r e e hundred m i l l i o n d o l l a r s
can reasonably be expected from t h e Congress per annum f o r t h e
next s e v e r a l y e a r s f o r research and development and t h a t w i t h
t h i s n o u n t of money conditions will n o t be so bad. It i s not
c l e a ,why t h i s i s t h e r i g h t " n t of money.
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Further as t o t h e KDB, he thinks they should v i r t u a l l y
g e t o u t of t h e budget business and s t i c k t o giving t e c h n i c a l
advice based on t h e study of t e c h n i c a l problems. Yes, they
would keep a small budget s t a f f which, as I understood him,
would check expenditures b u t n o t p l a n budgets i n any.sense.
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- 2 The committees themselves would be completely o u t o f the budget
business and would not be involved i n f i n a n c i a l matters.
General LfcNarney's s t a f f c o n s i s t s o f roughly a dozen
people, and t h e p r i n c i p a l amount o f h i s work i s done by the
Robert H e l l e r panagement S r g a n i z a t i o n , who a r e working f o r him
under c o n t r a c t .
As t o an OSRD-type organization, he said yes he would be
i n favor o f one, p r o v i d e d ' i t s -function was t o a c t as a c l a i n a n t
agency which could g e t manpower, m a t e r i a l s , l a b o r a t o r i e s , etc.,
a l l o c a t e d t o t h e m i l i t a r y organizations b e t t e r than o r i n
a d d i t i o n t c what they can g e t f o r themselves. This i s a conc e p t of an GS;a successor o r g a r i z a t i o n which I had n o t previously
heard o f .
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