or not I would have anything to talk to him about. "That's all right," the President said. "If you don't have anything to talk about, maybe I will. Then, if something comes up, I can usually save it for a week—and, if you are coming here regularly, no particular attention will be drawn to your visits." I recall many times, in those weekly meetings, when the President would ask me if I had anything to discuss, and if I had not, he would pace around the room and talk about whatever came to his mind.
In our first several meetings, the President outlined in considerable detail what he wanted me to do in the interval before I took over. He said that historically the military forces in the United States had experienced either a feast or a famine. Faced with a crisis, nothing was too good for them. Postwar, the economizers took over, and our regular military establishment withered on the vine until the next crisis occurred. He traced the history of the last three of our wars, and said he doubted that any one of them would have been fought if the United States had had, before the war started, an adequate military posture—well-balanced Army-Navy forces in being known to be well trained and well equipped. As President he had decided, he said, that with the settlement of the Korean War he was not again going to enfeeble our armed strength. He felt that the world situation required balanced United States armed forces that were strong enough to deter a challenge by any nation and particularly by the Soviet Union.
He directed that the new Chiefs of Staff meet together, without staff assistance, and work up in outline the military structure we thought the country should have to insure the peace he envisaged. Traditionally, he told the chiefs, military men were supposedly concerned only with the force requirements—not costs. While he was not putting a ceiling on costs, he wanted us as chiefs to look at our total national strength in connection with our planning, economic as well as military. He was thinking in such long-range terms—twenty, forty, fifty years, as long as the threat to peace remained—that obviously our total expenditures had to bear a satisfactory relationship to total income over the whole time period. He wanted a "pay-as-you-go" system if it were at all possible. He reasoned that it was essential that our allies have confidence in the long-range fiscal policies of this country as well as in its military strength. Such confidence was further necessary because he wanted allied military forces included in the free world strength. We would help those who needed help to generate military forces which in turn would reduce some of our own requirements.
In order that we could be alone to work out a plan, the new Chiefs boarded the Secretary of the Navy's yacht on the Potomac in early August. A draft was given to the President that same

month, and by the end of August the basis of what later was to be called the New Look had been approved by the President after favorable consideration by the National Security Council. Later that fall the Joint Chiefs of Staff appointed a special committee to work up a detailed force structure; costs were estimated to be in the thirty-three to thirty-five billion range for new money in each fiscal year. It was a far cry from the ten- to twelve-billion limit of post-World War II, which left our defenses so dangerously weakened and, undoubtedly, encouraged the Communists to enter Korea in 1950 with the expectation of victory.
A defense appropriation of this magnitude for the indefinite future was unheard of in the history of our country. Only a strong President would dare to commit himself and his party to such a program.
This was the fall of 1953. In every year since then, the defense appropriation has approximated 50 per cent or more of the national budget. Unquestionably, the military strength of the United States has prevented World War III and has so far maintained the confidence of our allies. The courage and foresight of a President with a military background stabilized a world situation that the Communists hoped for a while they could control. We must pray that President Eisenhower's successors will be as wise as he, and as courageous.