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7 April 1958
MEMORANDUM FOR THE FILES OF LEWIS L, STRAUSS
411549
This morning, April 7, 1958, I met by appointment
arranged by Secretary of Defense McElroy, in his office
together with the Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles;
his Assistant, ir. Philip Farley; Dr, James Killian,
Scientific Adviser to the President; Deputy Secretary of
Defense Donald Quarles; General Loper, Chairman of the
Military Liaison Committee; and General Nathan Twining,
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
The subject under
discussion was the proposed high-altitude shot or shots
in the HARDTACK series scheduled for this month at the
Eniwetok Proving Grounds.
This memorandum is to be read in connection with
earlier memoranda. which I have dictated on the subject of
the
potential damage to the eyes of any who might look
at the shots and whose eyes would receive permanent injury
from the brilliance of the fireball,
Secretary Quarles stated the case,
following which
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expressed its desire to go forward with
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I read the most recent coimunication from General Leudecke,
In the discussion which ensued, the Departnent of Defense
the shots in order
to avoid the delay of five to seven months, incident to
their transfer to Johnson Island and in order to save the
Government the expense incident to the transfer which
Mr, Quarles stated might be as much as $20 million.
Dr, Killian, in oeneral, supported the Department of
Defense,
In rebuttal, I made the same statements that I made
on a previous occasion with respect to our responsibility
as Trustee to the United Nations for the territory, and
the moral obligations to the inhabitants of the atoll.
I
said that the message which 1 had received that morning
indicated that the extra expense was in the neighborhood
of £5 to $6 million, but that, in any case, the expense
was "de minimis" compared with the other considerations,
we discussed the possibility of evacuating the natives, of
stationing military personnel as monitors on the islands,
or of making the Chiefs and sub-Chiefs responsible as had
been suggested in General Leudecke's message of even date.
I then returned to the alternative issue of moving
the tests to Johnson Island and, after discussion of the
pros and cons, it was agreed that this should be done, the
Department of Defense concurring,
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