Memorandum from Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal to President Harry S. Truman, with Attachments
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OCR Page 1 of 35*MATIONAS
ARCHIVES AMD
THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY
RECORDS
SERVICI°
fat
WASHINGTON
24 June 1946
My dear Mr. President:
The purpose of this letter is to acknowledge your letter
of 15 June 1946 addressed to the Secretary of War and to me, and
to refer to my conversation with you of 19 June on the general
subject of the reorganization of the War and the Navy Departments.
It is my understanding from your letter and our sub-
sequent conversation that your principal objectives are:
(1)
The creation of a single department of national
defense under a civilian head, with broad powers
of over-all supervision and control, while leav-
ing full administration of their respective
Services to the Secretaries for War, Navy, and Air.
(2)
With particular regard to the Navy -- the pre-
servation of its integrity and autonomy so as to
insure the retention of those imponderables of
spirit and morale so essential to a military
Service, and to insure also that the ability of
the future Navy to discharge its responsibility
for the security of the Nation is not impaired.
I consider the foregoing objectives attainable, and the
recognized difficulties in drafting legislation which will insure
their success, surmountable.
One of the other points in your letter of 15 June relates
to the subject of land-based planes for Naval reconnaissance, anti-
submarine warfare, and protection of shipping. I am glad to note
that the Navy is to have a continuing part in the future development
of these operations, so that full advantage may be taken of its
experience in this field and of the lessons learned in the late war.
Admiral Nimitz joins me in this expression.
I wish to thank you for the patience with which you have
listened to the Navy's views on the reorganization of our national
defense and for the time which you have devoted to the subject. You
may be assured of my desire and that of Admiral Nimitz to cooperate
with you fully in the effort to achieve the objectives of your program.
Respectfully,
The President
The White House
James tour tol
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