US Presidency
1958

But I am reserving them for treatment in separate communications because of my purpose today of speaking only about matters bearing directly upon our security and peace. I now place before you an outline of action designed to focus our resources upon the two tasks of security and peace. In this special category I list eight items requiring action. They are not merely desirable. They are imperative. The first need is to assure ourselves that military organization facilitates rather than hinders the functioning of the military establishment in maintaining the security of the nation. Since World War II, the purpose of achieving maximum organizational efficiency in a modern defense establishment has several times occasioned action by the Congress and by the Executive. The advent of revolutionary new devices, bringing with them the problem of overall continental defense, creates new difficulties, reminiscent of those attending the advent of the airplane half a century ago. Some of the important new weapons which technology has produced do not fit into any existing service pattern.