Page:Legislative History of the AAF and USAF.djvu/84

 �This Page Declassified lAW EO12958 ties, incluchng death and life imprisonment for violations with intent to injure the lYnited States or to help a foreign nation, were prowded for wolaton of the security provisions and certain prohibitions included in the act. 8 The Military Appropriation Act, 1947, Pubhc Law 515, 9 Cong., 2 Sess. (approved 16 July 1946), provided an appropriation of $375,000,000 for "atomic serwce," and the First Supplementary Appropriation Act, 194, Public Law 663, 79 Cong., 2 Sess. (ap- proved 8 August 1946), provided for an increase of this appropriation to a sum set by the President  It m obvious that a large part of these funds went into atomic research and production connected with Air Force weapons. At first, the Ar Force was represented on the Military Liaison Committee by repre- sentatives named by the Army. Not until 1949 did Congress amend the Atomic .nergy Act to give the Air Force, along with the Army and Navy, separate and equal representation on this committee. 2 However, it had been agreed at the Newport Conference in 1948 that the Chief of the Armed Serwces Special Weapons Project would report to the Chief of Staff, USAF. Ths decision gave the USAF operational control 0f the atomic bomb for the time being. Atomic energy became of extreme importance in Air Force planning, and the Air Force sponsored an extensive program of atomic research, a program directed by an Assistant for Atomic Energy in the Of- rice of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Opera- %ions3  Another measure of 1946 winch was to be of great importance to the Air Force, as well as to the other two services, was the Legis- lative Reorganization Act of 1946. Ths leg- mlatmn made rather sweeping changes in the standing cornmttees o the House and the Senate It did away wth separate com- mittees for naval and for rmhtary affairs, setting up instead a single armed services committee in each house of Congress to deal wxth the. affairs of all the armed forces3  Th combination, in each House, of the separate committees which had dealt specifically with Army or Navy matters was obwously in keeping wth the increasing tendency toward the unification of the armed services. It also contributed to the effectiveness of Congress in dealing with matlets pertaining to the armed services in that it partmlly corrected the "processes of diffusion" In Congress by which responsi. bfiity in such matters was dvded between several different committees. Of course there remained the dfficulty of securing coorchnaton and cooperation between the Senate and the House armed services committees on all service matters. Then too, there remained a dffusion of the responsibfity for national security among other committees n both houses. Chief among these were the Atomic Energy Com- mittee, the Committee on Expenditures in the Execuhve Departments, the Corertuftee on Foreign Relations, the Appropriations Committee, the Rules Committee, and special committees such as the Truman Committee, whose investigahve activities have already been discussed in a previous chapter3 a The passage of an act incorporating the Civil Air Patrol, Public Law 46, 9 Cong., 2 Sess. (approved 1 July 1946), m the sum- mer of 1946 was also of some significance to the Air Force. The Cvil Air Patrol, tablished on i December 1941 by the exec- utive order of Forello LaGuardia, the Di- rector of Civilian Defense, had performed useful service in coastal (antsubmarine) patrol, border patrol, forest patrol, Army courier service, aviation cadet recruiting, and other activities during World War I!; About a year and a half later it became an auxilmry of the Army by Presidential order and was placed under the supervision and control of the Technical Services Division, AC/AS, Operations, Commitments, and Re- quh-ements. = By the above.mentioned in- corporating act, 48 individuals from 48 states were mcorporated as the Civil Air Patrol, which had as its objects: i) encour- aging and aiding American citizens who wished to contribute their efforts to the development of aviation and the mainte- nance of air supremacy; 2) prowchug avi- ation education and training; and 3) pro- viding an organization of private citizens THIS PAGE Declassified lAW EO12958