Page:Longines Chronicles with Charles E. Potter 1954 ARC-96012.ogv/6

Potter
Well, Larry, I'd be happy to. First I want to say that due to a prior engagement, as a matter of fact, it was an engagement where I was a host to some--to the television--future of the television industry, where they presented awards to some young people for an essay on the voice of democracy, I was late at the meeting, and I only attended about the last half hour of that luncheon. And I'll be very frank with you, stating that I'm sure Secretary Stevens and myself had no idea that this memorandum would cause the furor that it did. I think that--I think that Secretary Stevens had every right to believe that military personnel and any personnel under his command would receive utmost respect from the committee. I don't know that necessarily is a result of the luncheon but from his talk with the various members of the committee. At that time I recall when I arrived on the scene, there were some changes made on the memorandum. It wasn't debated, it wasn't discussed particularly, I know that Secretary Stevens made some changes. So I'm convinced the Secretary along with myself had no idea that it was a--that it was a retreat on his part. I think of the core--the core of the entire memorandum, which has been lost in the shuffle, so to speak, was the fact that stating that the Army would do the investigating. In other words, the Army would continue the investigation which they had underway prior to Senator McCarthy's investigation and that the Army would report its findings to the committee. Now I--it seems I had assumed, and I think that was the position of the Secretary, that that wasn't necessarily a concession but that was the orderly way to do business, that the Army would do its own investigating in this case and report its findings to the committee and the committee could do as it saw fit with the material that was turned over to the committee by the Army.