Word: pentagonals
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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INTERSERVICE RIVALRY: The President ordered that William M. Holaday, special Defense assistant for missiles, be given full authority to crack down on what Ike called "alleged interservice rivalries" that might hinder missile development. No more than Killian will Holaday be a missile czar. Rather, he will be a Pentagon straw boss for missiles, working for the President through Killian and Defense Secretary Neil McElroy...
...these special requirements was the need for "greater concentration of effort and improved arrangements within the Government in the fields of science, technology and missiles." That led to the appointment of M.I.T.'s Dr. Killian (see box). It also led to the investiture of William Holaday, already the Pentagon's missileman, as a special kind of official "clothed with all the authority that the Secretary [of Defense] himself possesses in this field, so that no administrative or interservice block can occur...
Asked about the situation, Secretary of Defense McElroy said he had "not heard that Dr. Killian's authority will extend to giving orders within the Defense Department." But McElroy said Killian would always be welcome at the Pentagon...
Galbraith interjected one dissonant note into the harmonious session by criticizing Stevenson's plan for reorganizing the Pentagon into bureaus. Galbraith termed all such efficiency schemes "escapism," but was countered by Bundy, who declared that "we must try to do the things we have to do efficiently; better spending of the money we have will make it go farther...
What caused the Pentagon's turnabout was a decision by the Administration to pay out an additional $400 million for defense programs in the second quarter of fiscal 1958 and to give $300 million of it to the Air Force. It had little alternative. Despite all economies, the Defense Department spent $10.3 billion in the first fiscal quarter, leaving only $9.8 billion for the second three months. Since program stretchouts are slow to take hold, this would have meant either 1) enormous cuts to bring the budget back into line by the end of the second quarter-something military...