TLS as president, two pages, 7 x 10.25, White House letterhead, May 5, 1958. Letter to Russell B. Sterns of National Food Products, Inc., in part: "I am sure it is no news to you that I am engaged in an all-out effort to secure legislation under which the Defense Department may be organized to meet modern security requirements with maximum efficiency and minimum cost. In a number of instances I have detailed publicly my reasons for urging this action; I hope you believe these sound.
Because of your business experience, it seems to me that you may be particularly impressed by an analogy suggested to me lately by a good friend who heads one of our great corporations. He suggested that present operations within the Department of Defense are similar to a corporate operation that would permit each important subordinate to report separately and independently to the Board of Directors bypassing the Chief Executive entirely. This, of course, would be completely unworkable; it could hardly be tolerated long, because tough competition with better organized units would soon produce a profit and loss statement that could spell disaster.
As of today, the Defense Department must operate under a system, or lack of system, similar to one that, as I say, would not be tolerated by a successful business corporation. All of us know that the competition faced by the Defense Department is the sternest in the world, that provided by the military might of the Soviet Union. The single objective of the Defense Department is the nation's security; in this it must be successful. Of course, in a successful company the Board of Directors operates through its Chief Executive Officer. He is trusted to make, within the limits prescribed by the Board, decisions regarding details of general programs and operations as necessary.
I believe that, in a similar manner, the Secretary of Defense must, under broad policies prescribed by the Congress, make sure that the Defense establishment operates under single direction, is responsive to changing needs, and is in addition economically administered. Moreover, he must have the flexibility, within guide lines adopted by the Congress, to make detailed changes in programs, organizations and doctrines as required by the rapidly changing technology of defense. In fact it is this technology, the advance of which is accelerated more and more each year, that is one of the most compelling reasons for according to the Secretary of Defense the necessary authority to keep the entire Defense establishment completely fit and ready for performance of whatever task may fall to it, night or day.
If this little comparison with corporate practices appeals to you as helpful in appreciating the crying need for Defense modernization, I hope that you, and others, will find it useful in awakening the public to the grave seriousness of this matter. I am sending this letter, or one nearly identical, to a number of my good friends in the business world." In fine condition. On August 6, 1958, President Eisenhower approved the Department of Defense Reorganization Act, which was designed to streamline authority within the department, while still maintaining the ordinary authority of the Military Departments to organize, train and equip their related forces. ‘The Act clarified the overall decision-making authority of the Secretary of Defense with respect to these subordinate Military Departments and more clearly defined the operational chain of command over US military forces (created by the military departments) as running from the President to the Secretary of Defense and then to the unified combatant commanders.’
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