oe De ee vee wo 4 hational Lilitary mstablishment RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT BOARD Washington 25, D.C. 27 January 1949 MiNORANDUM FOR MR. RICHARDSON: Subject: I fully endorse the suggested procedure in Dr. 3ush's letter cf December 20th to Secretary Forrestal, with the following acditional comments, I would suggest that Secretary Forrestal might wish to discuss this problem informally with Secretary Acheson and if he also concurs, that the two Secretaries present to the President the idea of a small, very high level committee to study this probiem from an informed but objective point of view and submit recommendations which, if approved by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State, would then go to the Presicent for final approval. With reference to the Bikini report I would suggest that this high level committee consider in its proposed statement for the public not a publication of the Bikini report (with appropriate deletions), but rather that the statement be pr-pared to incorporate a restatement of the essential releaseable features of the Bikini report with any corrections of conclusions or additional appropriate information which may result from experience and analysis supsequent to the Bikini study. This would avoid the issue of releasing the Bikini report under pressure, but would accomplish the essential I personally have a conviction regarding the desiracility under present circumstances of publishing two of the recommendations of ehefly * mate By UH MLE DATE Up In the meantime it snould be sufficient to say, if anything hes to be said pubiicly, that this whole broad yuestion is in process of restudy. Authority O50 UR If this high level committee is set up, I believe that its appointment should not be announced publicly, since this could create pressures and mignt icad to a second embarrassing episode if its recommendations for public release were aiso vetoed. Any useful public announcement could come with such publication as may result from the new committee's recommendation. ye purposes which Mr. Dewey and the other members of the Bikini Evaluation Board have had in mind in recommending that the appropriate aspects of this report be made available to the public. DECLASSIFIED le war Council item on Bikini Report, Bw,etc.