NATIONAL 'E.CURITY POLICY


Mr. Nitze to remember that in the future. He added that General
Burns has no authority to arrange such conferences. He said that the
fact that General Bradley was going to Europe was no excuse what-
soever for calling such a meeting and that it was not the business of
the Department of State to arrange meetings with General Bradley
in any event as that could be done only through the Secretary of
Defense.
   Mr. Acheson asked Mr. Nitze ,to outline the group's work and Mr.
 Nitze set forth 'the analysis briefly, explaining that General Landon
 would outline the military implications of the study with specific
 regard to the atomic capability of the Soviet Union. Mr. Nitze started
 to outline the working group's tentative conclusions, but was inter-
 rupted by Mr. Johnson who said that he did not want to hear what the
 conclusions were. Mr. Johnson then said that there were two things"
 in the study which should not be in it, and one thing which was not.
 in it but should be. He offered to specify the former and said that he
 would specify the latter on another date. Mr. Acheson then suggested
 that he land Mr. Johnson might 'authorize the group to continue its
 work on its present lines. Mr. Johnson said that he would not express
 any opinion on that. He said that the Department of Defense, as a
 coequal Department, was perfectly willing to discuss any matter if
 given ia reasonable amount of time in which to study it beforehand,
 but that such had not been the case in this instance, and this was the-
 fourth time the Department of State had tried to put him in such a
 position. He had protested before and he would continue to protest.
 He said, furthermore, that plans had been made to issue a press release,
 after the meeting which presumably 'would indicate that 'agreement
 had been reached on this matter ,and that he was violently opposed to
 any such maneuver, as he was not going to agree to anything.-
 Mr. Acheson and Mr. Nitze explained that there was no such plan
 and that, in fact, the contrary was true: because it was feared that"
 Mr. Johnson's and General Bradley's presence here might be noted,_
 in spite of precautions taken to avoid it, the press office had been
 alerted ,to say in response to any questions which might be received
 regarding Secretary Johnson's and General Bradley's presence that
 they were here merely to confer with the Secretary of State prior to-
 going 'to Europe to meet wifh fthe NAT organization on defense. Gen-
 eral Burns 'added that such was his definite understanding of the ar-
 rangements and that he 'had conveyed that information to Mr. Johnson
 this morning. Mr. Johnson then said that General Bradley was going-
to Europe on the business of the Department of Defense and did not
have to consult 'with any one outside of the Department of Defense in
order to do so.


2 05.