Approved for Release: 2013/06/25
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Secret NOFORN
Chapter 1
27
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Gardner, the committee members decided to approach President Eisenhower on the matter. On 27 March 1954, the President told them about the discovery of the Soviet Bison bombers and his concern that these new aircraft might be used in a surprise attack on the United States. Stressing the high priority he gave to reducing the risk of military surprise, the President asked the committee to advise him on this problem.⁴⁵
The President’s request led Chairman DuBridge to ask one of the most prominent members, MIT President James R. Killian, Jr., to meet with other Science Advisory Committee members in the Boston area to discuss the feasibility of a comprehensive scientific assessment of the nation’s defenses. At their meeting at MIT on 15 April 1954, the group called for the recruitment of such a task force if the President endorsed the concept.
On 26 July 1954, President Eisenhower authorized Killian to recruit and lead a panel of experts to study “the country’s technological capabilities to meet some of its current problems.” Killian quickly set up shop in offices located in the Old Executive Office Building and organized 42 of the nation’s leading scientists into three special project groups investigating US offensive, defensive, and intelligence capabilities, with an additional communications working group (see chart, page 28). The Technological Capabilities Panel (TCP) groups began meeting on 13 September 1954. For the next 20 weeks, the members of the various panels met on 307 separate occasions for briefings, field trips, conferences, and meetings with every major unit of the US defense and intelligence establishments. After receiving the most up-to-date information available on the nation’s defense and intelligence programs, the panel members began drafting their report to the National Security Council.⁴⁶
Project Three Support for the Lockheed CL-282
Even before the final Technological Capabilities Panel report was ready, one of the three working groups took actions that would have a major impact on the US reconnaissance program. Project Three had
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⁴⁵ Beschloss, *Mayday*, pp. 73-74; Technological Capabilities Panel of the Science Advisory Committee, *Meeting the Threat of Surprise Attack*, 14 February 1955, p. 185 (hereafter cited as TCP Report) (TS/Restricted Data, downgraded to S).
⁴⁶ James R. Killian, Jr., *Sputnik, Scientists, and Eisenhower: A Memoir of the First Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology* (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1977), p. 68; Beschloss, *Mayday*, p. 74; TCP Report, pp. 185-186 (S).
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James R. Killian, Jr.
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Secret
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Approved for Release: 2013/06/25