NO MORE IMPORTANT PROBLEM THAN CIVIL DEFENSE

There is no more important problem facing the Nation today than the problem of civil defense. We are dealing before this committee with the survival of this Nation. We are also dealing with the national will-that somewhat intangible ingredient which charges the environment of our daily life, either positively or negatively, and which marks the difference between a leader of nations and a second-class power. If we are to remain true to our heritage of freedom and face up to the problems of our time, we must take reasonable measures for the protection of our civilian population. The taking of such measures symbolizes our determination to react positively to the Soviet challenge, rather than to choose the part of piecemeal surrender. In the critical days and months to come, I shall, under Executive leadership, address myself to the stimulation and the strengthening of the national will.

Evidence is now at hand to conclude that the level of public support for civil defense is greater than had been officially supposed. I am convinced that the public is no longer content to stand naked before the threat of enemy attack when a vast improvement in our preparedness is possible, and, in my judgment, feasible.

The United States has a 2-to-1 economic superiority over the Soviet Union. This economic superiority-the superiority of our mobilization base represents the measure of our capacity to take those measures which are necessary for our national defense and security. In certain areas, however-and civil defense is a case in point-we have not used our economic potential to create actual strength-inbeing. As the President indicated in his epochal telecast to the Nation of July 25, the time has now come when we must increase the overeall strength of the Nation, not merely to meet an immediate crisis but to maintain our freedom over the long pull.

My testimony will deal, in order, with the five major topics suggested in your letter of invitation. These are:

(1) The overall civil defense plan, including the background and necessity of the administration's new nonmilitary defense program: (2) The role of the Office of Emergency Planning;

(3) The utilization and coordination of the Federal establishment;

(4) The development of adequate preparedness at State and local levels; and

(5) The management of resources in an emergency, including, but not limited to, the postattack period.

I. THE OVERALL NONMILITARY DEFENSE PLAN

Nonmilitary defense has three principal elements:

(1) Protection of life and property in the event of attack, including shelter and supporting systems;

(2) Strengthening, mobilizing, and managing the resources of the Nation in the interest of current and future national security and to support essential military and civilian operations to that end, both domestic and foreign; and

(3) Finally, insuring the integrity, continuity, and capability of civil government to function at all levels of our Federal democratic system under any potential conditions of emergency. The first of these elements is a collection of programs which we call civil defense. As a system, civil defense is complementary to military defense, and can best be evaluated in the context of our total defense program. Upon my recommendation to the President, major functions in the civil defense program have been delegated to the Department of Defense.

Programs for strengthening, mobilizing and managing the Nation's resources for maximum national security and maintenance of the Government's integrity, on the other hand, are part of the inherent responsibility of the President, and have been retained in the Executive Office. Also part of the President's responsibility is the design of the total program and coordination of the activities of the Federal departments and agencies in these several fields. As Chief of State and elected representative of all the people, the President has responsibility for the leadership and stimulation of the States and their political subdivisions. The role of the OCDM (to be redesignated the Office of Emergency Planning, when Congress acts) is to advise and assist the President in the discharge of all these responsibilities. I will cover those functions more fully in later sections of my testimony. Let me describe the necessity for the recent organization changes which were designed to place civil defense in a more effective setting without sacrificing essential control.

When I was placed in charge of the OCDM in early February, I undertook as my first order of business a thoroughgoing review of agency functions and organizations; in the course of this study, I prepared a comprehensive report to the President which included the following points:

(1) Civil defense is of critical importance to the strength and survival of the Nation;

(2) Civil defense programs are well developed and ready to move. The groundwork has been prepared;

(3) Although a sound basis for action has been established, civil defense has failed to attain adequate public and official support, and little actual progress has been achieved;

(4) The key element in an effective civil defense program is a comprehensive system of fallout shelters. To make shelter effective, certain supporting elements are required, including warning, communication, radiological defense, and organizational readiness to perform disaster services.

The actions subsequently taken by the President indicate acceptance of these basic findings as working principles.

The President's decision to place responsibilities for the shelter program in the Department of Defense indicates that civil defense is now regarded as an integral part of our total defense program. Major civil defense expenditures can now be judged, as they should be, in the context of other expenditures for defense, both active and passive. The value of such a program can be evaluated to the Congress as part of a total system designed to deter attack, or to blunt the thrust of any attack which might occur.

I am confident that civil defense will flourish in this context. There is at present a serious lack of balance in our preparations for a possi

ble nuclear war. Civil defense has been perilously neglected. If general nuclear war were to occur today, millions of Americans would be needlessly killed or injured by radioactive fallout. As the committee knows, and pointed out in its landmark report of 1956, these casualties can be prevented.

Let me briefly describe the scope of the civil defense responsibilities assigned to the Department of Defense.

Shelter The key element

I wish to provide the strongest kind of support for the shelter program which has been laid before this committee by the Secretary of Defense. Without shelter, there is no civil defense. As a result of the intensive planning, research, and technological development done by OCDM and others over the past years, shelter is now ready to move from the incubation stage into the action stage, beginning logically with a program to identify and make use of the shelter potential of existing buildings (as I specifically recommended to the President). As a result of sample surveys conducted by OCDM, indications are that about one-fourth of our people could be adequately sheltered in this manner very quickly and at minimum expense. This is not to say, as this committee correctly pointed out last year, that this is an existing capability; it is a potential which will provide the most shelter for the least cost in the shortest time.

It is also essential that the Federal Government move ahead to incorporate shelter in suitable Federal buildings-both old and newcivilian and military-and to make these shelters fully operational for use by the American people.

We must not forget that some form of specially prepared shelter is available today for many millions of urban residents of the U.S.S.R. The inclusion of shelter in new apartment and industrial buildings has been standard practice in the Soviet Union since 1949. In addition to the shelters for the general population, the U.S.S.R. has an extensive system of shelters for Government and party elite.

If I am not mistaken, members of this committee have personally seen the shelter capability of the deep Moscow subway system.

ADDITIONAL DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE RESPONSIBILITIES

In addition to the shelter program, the DOD has been assigned responsibility for

(1) Developing an improved capability for bringing warning to the public. The existing outdoor warning system at present reaches only about 35 percent of the American people. OCDM has developed, and field tested over the past 2 years, a home alerting device which we call NEAR, short for National Emergency Alarm Repeater system. This system consists of two main parts; (a) an electric generator which is installed in powerplants throughout the nation to superimpose a 240-cycle harmonic upon the 60-cycle normal current for a continuous 10-second interval, and (b) a wall plug-in device for the home, which is triggered by the 240-cycle harmonic to produce what we believe is a foolproof all-weather alerting system which can reach every home in America served by our electric power networks;

(2) An improved emergency communication system—an important feature of which is a radio backup for existing communications which may be destroyed;

(3) Public education and training programs for civil defense; (4) A strengthened civil defense research program;

(5) An augmentation of the national radiological monitoring and detection system;

(6) Guidance and assistance to the States in concert with OEP in developing organizational readiness to perform essential disaster services in an emergency.

I have stressed the fact that shelter and these related civil defense systems can best be planned and evaluated as part of a total defense structure.

I should like to place equal stress on another aspect of the problem which has been very much in all our minds, in developing this organizational change. This is the fact that civil defense is, and must remain, essentially civilian in character. We cannot simply turn the job over to the military and forget it. The nature of war has changed, however. A nuclear attack could create "theater of war" conditions where the military must be prepared to assist civil government to maintain law and order to save lives and meet disaster-created needs. This is part of the broad civil defense role the President has assigned to the DOD. The Secretary of Defense will be supported in carrying out this function by all agencies of Government as appropriate, including the OEP.

II. THE ROLE OF THE OFFICE OF EMERGENCY PLANNING

As a second main point, you have requested a statement of the role of the OEP under the reorganization approved by the President on July 20.

The transfer of responsibility for shelter and related systems to the Secretary of Defense was made in accord with my recommendations and advice. Its purpose was to obtain full utilization of the resources of the Federal Establishment. This is sound, and in accordance with the intent of Congress as expressed in section 405 of the Federal Civil Defense Act of 1950, as amended, which specifies that full use should be made of existing agencies for civil defense purposes. Other assignments of civil defense and defense mobilization responsibility previously made to other departments and agencies of the Federal Government remain in full force and effect. ŎEP will advise, assist, and when directed, act for the President in determining policy for, planning, directing, and coordinating the total program.

Within the Executive Office of the President OEP will be a staff arm to assist in the discharge of those responsibilities which pertain to the function of the Presidency itself.

The responsibilities which remain with the President are large and complex-but can and should be capably handled with the assistance of a reduced staff.

In the past, the top management of OCDM has been required to give predominant attention to the many day-to-day operating problems demanding immediate solution. As a result, the true staff functions have been neglected.

73266-61--5

- What are these neglected functions, and what does the OEP intend to do about them? First, let me make it clear that the primary function of the OEP is to advise and assist the President. nature of a Presidential staff agency.

This is the

Certain broad areas, however, have been identified by the President for intensified staff assistance. Also I can indicate some of the gaps which I see in the overall program at this time. It should be understood that some of the corrective measures we have in mind are still in the formative stage, because up to now our principal concern has been the definition of "major program needs" and effective organizational arrangements to carry them out.

Planning and organizing the overall nonmilitary defense program

The President, as Chief Executive and civilian Commander in Chief, is responsible for the overall nonmilitary defense plans including civil defense. He must be sure that there are no major gaps, and that all the parts of the program are moving in concert. I am sorry to report that, for various reasons, this has not been the case in the past. There is need to develop and define "basic security objectives" in terms of the job to be done, and these integrated pieces of work programs must be spelled out and specific assignments made for their executions.

A major job for the Office of Emergency Planning, therefore, will be the development of such a comprehensive plan and patterns of functions to be performed to insure that all elements in the Federal family are moving in step toward our national security objectives. One complicating factor from an organizational standpoint is that there are no existing civilian counterpart agencies for some of the wartime responsibilities which the President must perform, such as economic stabilization, telecommunications, censorship, and transportation. In such cases, it is vitally necessary, in addition to substantive program formulation, to develop advance arrangements for establishing, organizing, and staffing such agencies so they can be brought into being quickly when the emergency need occurs. This subject will be covered more fully later in this testimony, as you have requested. I just wanted to identify it briefly now as one of the retained functions. Strengthening, mobilizing, and managing the Nation's resources for maximum national security

With the assignment to the Department of Defense of major civil defense activities, OEP should now be able to devote more attention to the Nation's basic resources picture and the broad, long-range national resources responsibilities inherited from its predecessor agencies the NSRB and the ODM-and deriving from the National Security Act of 1947, the Defense Production Act, and other statutes. The essential elements of this basic role include: (a) emergency resources management activities, including stockpiling; (b) programs to strengthen the Nation's basic resources posture; and (c) cold war and economic warfare activities. I shall discuss this role also more fully later in my statement.

Research

Another important area of activity of the OEP involves research. Research is the key to progress in the modern world. It is also increasingly the key to successful management. In the field of non