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SESSION V
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275
they just didn't dare move, and I imagine the President's office called
up Mr, Seaborg and he was consulted on the question all the time,
and, of course, the Department of Defense had to be consulted. So _
they had a smal) Cabinet meeting about this, and this took a long time.
Not that I'm in favor of a complete block of responsibility; Iam not,
I think there's a time and a place for it and the local man ought to
have enough sensitivity to his situation to be allowed to rneet what is
really an emergency situation, Now, if his judgme..t turns uut to be
wrong, then he should be jerked home and he does it at his own peril,
but a good man knows where the perils are and what the goals are,
Ien't that a beautiful thought! [Laughter] [t just doean't work out
quite thie way.
CONARD:
I feel like I've been sitting in a State Department brief-
ing! [Laughter] [ wonder really how relevant some of this stuff is
to nuclear warfare and the long-range effects? We've laid an awful
lot of stress on incidents that have occurred in foreign countries and
how we might handle those in the future. But what about what would
happen in this country as an aftermath of the war and the psychosocial
reactions here?
I think that's the real point we have to get at.