Page:Legislative History of the AAF and USAF.djvu/68

 �This Page Declassified lAW EO12958 62 -- USAF HSTORC. $'UDmS general respects in whmh he felt the Act required strengthening. 7 Forrestal's suggestions, and the proposals made by the Hoover Commission, were in general supported by President Truman on 5 March 1949, when he recommended to Congress certain modifications of the tional Security Act of 1947 which he con- sidered essential to meet changing condl tions. The ?resident recommended that the Natonat Security Act should be amended to a½comphsh two basic purposes; FLrs to convert She National MMltary Establish- ment into an executive department of the Government, to be known as the Depart- rnent of Defense, and, second, to 1srovide the Secretary of Deœene vth appropriate respons[bxhty and authority, and with mvLhan and military assistance adequate to fulfill his enlarged esponsibilitiem s Already, on 2 February 1949, a bill had been submitted to Congress providing for an Under Secretary of Defense who would perform such dutxes as might be prescribed by the Secretary and act for him m case of absence or dsabfiity. Ths bill sped through Congress and was approved on 2 Apr 1949 as Public Law 36, $1 Cong., 1 Sess. A month later Stephen T. Early, formerly press sec- retary to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, became the first Under Secretary of De- fense. zo Te tona! Security Act was axaended a second time in the summer of 1949 when Congress enacted Public Law 110, 81 Cong., I Seas. (approved 20 June I949), which gave the Central Intelligence Agency suffi- cient authority for its proper administra- tion. This law also protected the confiden- tial n[ure of the CIA's functionS.  Later in the summer of 1949 Congress still further amended the National Security Act. A bill, S. 1269, reflecting the recom- mendations made by the President in hi speech of 5 March, had been introduced in the Senate on 16 March. After holding ex- tensive hearings and discussions on this bill, the Senate Committee on Armed Serv- ices reported its own bill, S. 1843, which was also in close agreement with the President's recommendations and in general accord with thoe made by the Hoover Com- missi0n.  The original measure, S. 1269, including hose amendments which curfaded the powers of their offices in favor of the office of the Secretary of Defense, was supported by the Secretaries of the Army and the Air Force. The members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff--General Bradley, Admiral Denfield, and General Vandenberg also favored the measure as a whole. Gert. Clfton B. Cotes of the U.S. Manne Corps was the only wit- ness generally to oppose the bill. 'erdinand Eberstadt, chairman of the Committee on the National Security Orgamzation, was opposed to the consolidation oœ the three military departments into one executive de- partment; he objected to the creation of three Assistant Secretaries of Defense; and he did not wish to give the hlghest military rank to the proposed chairman of JCS. s Secretary of Defense Forvestal gave his support to the proposed amendments which would give broad authority to the Secre- tary. He admitted that, as a result of his experience of the past 18 months as Sec- retary, he had changed hs position on the question of wng bread powers to the Sec- retary of Defense, saying that he believed the proposed changes would make possible effective organization and management of the Department of Defense and that he regarded these proposals as essential for continued progress toward umfication. SS The Senate committee decided to redraft S. 1269 in order to embody some of the views expressed by the witnesses who had testified and to meet some objections made by them. The revised version had added to it Title IV, dealing with the establishment of uni- form fiscal procedures and organizations in the Defense Department. There were a few other verbal changes which made S. 1843, the committee's bill, a more conserva- tive measure than S. 1269.  S. 1843 prowded for six major changes in the NatonaI Security Act, a well as for sev- eral minor ones.* The six major items were: . The removal of the three service secre- taries from the National Security Council. 2. The conversion of the National MiN- conslder&bly modified n the legislative Process The chanes conatned in the amending act as finally paaed by Con,ross (PL 216, 81 Cong, 1 Se) are 81yen a more derrailed teat- ment t PI 03-84 :lollowing, THIS PAGE Declassified lAW EO12958
 * These chances are no dlscussed in detail as S 1t was