April 28, 1950
Memorandum
Subject: Protocol Standing of Chairman and Members of JCS
Prior to the Cabinet meeting this morning, Secretary Johnson brought up the matter of protocol standing of the Chairman and the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Mr. Johnson said that the matter had not been raised with him by the Joint Chiefs or by General Bradley but by Admiral Davis.
As I understand him, at present the Joint Chiefs and General Bradley rank at public functions below the Assistant Secretaries of the Departments. He says that this causes them embarrassment and he believes that this should be corrected. On first impression it seems to me that he has a point. As I understood his proposal, it was that General Bradley and the Joint Chiefs should rank below members of the Cabinet and Under Secretary Farley, but above the Secretaries of the Service Departments and all other Under Secretaries and Assistant Secretaries. On my inquiring why the Under Secretary of Defense differed from the other Under Secretaries, he was under the impression that by reason of some legislation the Under Secretary of Defense was the Deputy Secretary and therefore outranked the others. This was new to me.
I did not argue the matter in any way and I may not have gotten it quite straight, but asked Secretary Johnson with whom he wished Mr. Woodward to confer to get his request for consideration. He said with Admiral Davis. If Mr. Woodward will get the proposal straight, we can then consider it.
S DA:ma