108. Editorial Note
In his memorandum of the White House daily staff meeting on December 8, 1961, Ewell included the following item on a discussion of nuclear testing:
“There was high consternation over the article on the front page of the New York Times that leaked the results of the Russian nuclear tests analysis. Our professional non-testers were extremely upset about this. State is forming a task force, under Foster, to write a public statement, to be held in reserve, in the event we resume atmospheric testing. Schlesinger asked to be put on this task force. He complained that USIA and CIA are beginning to shift their propaganda line in preparation for possible resumption of tests and this was wrong because the President hasn’t decided to resume tests. I opened my big mouth and said that I thought this was right, that it was just obvious that sooner or later we would resume testing, and that we should get ourselves in a less exposed position so that we wouldn’t look so foolish when we did. This, of course, went over like an iron balloon. I also asked Bundy whether the decision to limit tests in Nevada severely was based on political or technical grounds. He said it was political, that everyone would squawk about fall-out in their milk. I said that this, to a certain extent, was nonsense, that I didn’t see why we didn’t go ahead and test there rather than go through involved gymnastics to find some other place. This thought was received with a notable lack of enthusiasm also. I can detect that Arthur Schlesinger is now off the right wing militarist kick and has now joined the non-atmospheric testing bleeding hearts club.” (National Defense University, Taylor Papers, Daily Staff Meetings 9-12 61) The article mentioned was in The New York Times, December 8, 1961.