NATIONAL SECURITY POLICY


           Department of Defense
              Major General James H. Burns [ret.] 2
              Major General T. IH. Landon
              Mr. Najeeb E. Halaby4
              Mr. Robert LeBaron r
           National Security Council
              Mr. James Lay
           Princeton University
              Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer6
   Note; For an hour prior to the meeting, Dr. Oppenheimer read the
 drafts of Section I through VIII of the attached outline.7
   Dr. Oppenheimer first asked Mr. Nitze if his impression of the con-
 clusions of the papers were correct that there is no honest escape from
 an increased effort on the part of the United States. Mr. Nitze con-
 firmed the correctness of this impression. Dr. Oppenheimer said that
 he agreed but that he was impressed by what he called several "gaps".
 (1) What seemed to be a conflict between the author's confidence in
 our moral strength and a perplexity as to why this moral strength
 was not being employed. (2) The paper seems somewhat less than
 candid in noting the enormous difference between kinds of military
 strength, in indicating the role which things military play in overall
 strength, and in pointing up the desirable forms of strength. (3) He
 .said that the unity, determination, and economic power of the United
 States represents deterrents to war and strength in war. There is,
 however, a relative importance of having a great potential as against
 a current armament and it is primarily a question of the balance be-
 tween the two. The paper doesn't sharply distinguish between those
 things which will make for strength in war and those things which
 we must always have ready. (4) The terms of reference seem to call
 for answers to such questions as: Do we stockpile the H-bomb if we
 -can make it? What must we receive and what must we be willing to
 give in order to achieve international control of atomic energy? If we
 got into a war, we would use the atomic bomb; the Russians know it,

 "Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Foreign Military Affairs.
 ' Air Force Member of the Joint Strategic Survey Committee of the Joint
 Chiefs of Staff.
 'Director of the Office of Foreign Military Affairs, Department of Defense.
 5Chairman of the Military Liaison Committee to the United States Atomic
 lEnergy Commission; Adviser to the Secretary of Defense on atomic energy
-affairs.
   a.Chairmanof the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey ;
Chair-
man of the General Advisory Committee of the United States Atomicý
Energy
Commission; Director of Los Alamos Laboratories lof Manhattan Engineer
District, 1943-1945.
  7 Thespecific working drafts examined by Dr. Oppenheimer have not been
identified. For the final version of the study, NSC/68, see p. 235.


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