US Presidency
1964

It is being developed by the Naval Ordnance Test Station at China Lake, Calif., where the now famous Sidewinder missile was developed. Finally, I conferred at length yesterday with Sargent Shriver, who has just returned from a world trip, and I have asked him to serve as Special Assistant to the President in the organization and the ado ministration of the war on poverty program which I announced in my State of the Union Message. Mr. Shriver will continue to serve as Director of the Peace Corps. He will begin immediately to study the formulation and the execution of the concentrated assault on the causes and cures of poverty in the United States. I expect to appoint a committee of the Cabinet to serve in an advisory capacity with him, a Cabinet committee to be made up of the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, the Secretary of Labor, the Attorney General, the various departments, that would be Interior and Agriculture, that would be concerned with our war on poverty. Mr. Shriver is eminently qualified for this additional assignment.