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For the most part, I didn't mind not having my way. I didn't expect to and I was allowing the President to have more freedom than he would otherwise have had. However, while I didn't believe he would always heed my recommendations, I did become annoyed by the continuing onslaught of people telling him that I was a danger to the Country as a means of trying to persuade him to do something I though was not in the Country's best interest. I remember well the time, early on, when Senator Symington showed me a letter from a well known figure in the tecnical community, which said how much harm my advice was doing to the Air Force. Symington said that he was going to show the letter to the President and wanted me to know that he was going to do it. |
I knew that the leter's author had a serious conflict of interest, being a large investor in a number of millitary suppliers, but I also knew that he was a good frend of Symington's so I just said that it was his privilege to show the President anything he wante to. When Kennedy asked me about it I told him the facts as I knew them and he said, "Don't worry about it." But I did worry, nonetheless, because I realizede how often Kennedy or one of his staff was having to defend me. I often resolved to be more gentle in meetings with the President, but I was not able to do it for very long. I felt I was frequently the only one willing to state a moderate position and in heated discussions I would often become impatient. It was a surprise when I discovered that Bobby Kennedy had written a letter defending me for my stand against allowing the Air Force to detonate a fifty megaton bomb after the Soviets had done so.
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