THE CABINET: OPERATION CANDOR

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 02181236
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: March 8, 2023
• Document Release Date: August 26, 2019
• Case Number: F-2014-00426
• Publication Date: August 28, 1953

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mica imistmApproved for Release: 2019/08/08 CO2181236ENCY 3-1
YHE CABINET:
Operation Candor
President Eisenhower's top planners
and policymakers were busily at work last
week on a mammoth reporting project. In
the Administration's books, it was labeled
Operation Candor�a series of speeches
by the President, his Cabinet members,
and others of quasi-Cabinet rank report-
ing to the American people just what the
government was up against in such areas
as defense, foreign policy, atomic weap-
ons, and taxation.
The idea of a comprehensive report,
to be carried to all corners of the nation
by television and radio, grew out of Mr.
Eisenhower's pre-Inauguration conviction
that the American people often opposed
necessary programs because they did not
fully understand the facts which moti-
vated them. He felt, for example, that
had the people been told about Soviet
military strength right after the second
world war, they would never have per-
mitted hasty demobilization.
Atomic Revelations: Operation
Candor called for seven major policy
speeches. The first, delivered by the
President himself., would lay out the
broad outline of the series. In general
terms,. it would get down to the hard
truth on the state of the world and then
describe the Administration's proposals
for coping with the situation. Specifically,
the President would lay on �the line cur-
rently secret information about America's
atomic position and the Soviet Union's.
The President's speech, tentatively
scheduled for the early part of October,
would be followed by a full rehears,a1 of
U.S. foreign policy. Secretary of State
John Foster Dulles and Sen. Alexander
Wiley, chairman of the Foreign Relations
Committee, were expected to lean heav-
ily on the need for allies and foreign
bases as requisites to international secu-
rity. A panel discussion of defense would
be handled by Defense Secretary
Charles E. Wilson, Admiral Arthur W.
Radford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs,
and Deputy Defense Secretary Roger
Kyes. Air defense against atomic attack
and the dangers of relaxing military pre-
paredness would be stressed.
Cloak and Dagger: If the President
agreed, the next feature of Operation
Candor would be a full, frank discussion
by Allen Dulles, director of the Central
'Agency, and Lewis Strauss,
chairma-n of the Atomic Energy Commis-
sion, of the Soviet Union's atomic muscles
�even to estimating as closely as possible
its A-bomb stockpile.
Treasury Secretary George Humphrey
would answer the key question: Who
pays the piper, and how much? Taxes,
the balanced budget, and the percentage
of the national income necessary to ffi-
nance an adequate air-atomic defense'
would be his topic. Before the President
� summed up, in the last broadcast of the
series, U.N. Ambassador Henry Cabot
Lodge and Foreign Operations Adminis-
trator Harold Stassen would talk on col-
lective security and the United Nations.
Last week, White House advisers and
teams from various government agencies
were busy writing the speeches. The
. President's kickoff address was in almost
final form. Some of the other programs,
. such as the Lodge-Stassen talk, which
did not present too many difficulties,
were well along. But the exposition of
atomic strategy, both American and So-
viet, was still largely in the talking stage.
Approved for Release: 2019/08/08 CO2181236