Assistant Secretary of War

National Archives and Recwds Administration (afterwards, NARA Washington, DC/CoIIege Park, MD), RG 107, Office of the Secretary of War, Entry 191, General File, File 12, Memorandum from J.P. Morgan Company to Wilson administration (probably Colonel E. House), 19 May 1917, enclosed in Stettinius to Wainwright, Assistant Secretary of War, 17 April 1922. 

Benedict Crowell, Assistant Secretary of War, Director of Munitions,... 

The third conclusion—that the bombs should be dropped without warning—had been the subject of considerable debate among Truman and his advisers. John J. McCloy, the assistant secretary of war, argued for informing the Japanese that the United States possessed atomic weapons and the bombs were capable of wiping out entire cities. I said I would tell them [the Japanese] we have the bomb and I would tell them what kind of weapon it is, said McCloy. And then I would tell them the surrender terms. ... 

While procurement was kept at a minimum there were no restrictions on procurement planning. The Procurement Planning Division of the Chief s office was responsible for drawing up and submitting its portion of industrial mobilization plans to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of War. Early in 1924 procurement district offices were activated in New York, Boston, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and San Francisco. ... 

The CWS took steps, under the guidance of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of War, to implement the educational order legislation enacted by Congress in June 1938. This legislation had as its objective the training of selected industrial concerns in the manufacture of a half-dozen Army items, one of which was the gas mask. The first educational order contract was written by the Chemical Warfare Service in late 1939 and several more were awarded in 1940 and 1941. The educational order program was the first real step, as far as the CWS was concerned, in the direction of industrial mobilization in the emergency period. 

While the WPD study was still in progress, Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy brought up another aspect of chemical warfare preparedness which, up to that time, had not been especially considered except by the CWS. McQoy asked the Chief of Staff whether the United States was prepared to assist the United Nations in the employment of toxic gases. General Marshall referred the McCloy memorandum to the Chief, Chemical... 

Lt. Col. Edwin M. Chance, History of Edgewood Plants, p. 10. Colonel Chance submitted this report to the Assistant Secretary of War on 31 December 1918. See Ltr, Chance to Hist Off,... 

Among the duties of the Assistant Secretary of War was the approval of "shopping lists for the various supply arms and services. On 9 December 1921 the Assistant Secretary approved such a list for the CWS. Included were toxic agents, smoke materials, cloud gas materials, and chemical engineering equipment. Several reviews of the "List of Supplies to be Procured by the Chemical Warfare Service were made in the various categories in the 1920 s and 1930 s, but no substantial changes were effected. The Army supply list served a double purpose—it was a partial list of materials required by CWS for manufacture of its requirements and it was also the authorized procurement list of CWS for procurement planning purposes. ... 

The preparation for the procurement of such materiel. Although the CWS was responsible for the spade work involved, all proposals had to meet with the approval of the General Staff and of the Assistant Secretary of War. ... 

The actual writing of the specifications was done by the Technical Division at Edgewood Arsenal. All specifications were reviewed by a board made up of representatives of the Technical, Production, and Inspection Divisions of the arsenal. After the board had made a preliminary review of the specifications, the chiefs office sent them through the procurement district office to industrial firms experienced in the manufacture of the item. Final approval had to come from the Standards Division, Office of the Assistant Secretary of War. ... 

In August 1939, when the war clouds were hanging heavy over Europe, the War Department undertook a quick review of its plans for emergency action, In this connection the Assistant Secretary of War called the chiefs of the technical services to his office on 19 August and outlined three more or less distinct phases through which the nation might pass in the change from peace to war. These phases were ... 

During Phase I, the period of neutrality, the Assistant Secretary of War, Louis Johnson, personally took steps to insure that increased requirements for chemicals would be met in the event of war. Acting upon a suggestion of Edward M. Allen, president of the Manufacturing Chemists Association, he recommended early in 1939 that a national defense committee be set up to assist the War and Navy Departments in perfecting plans for utilizing the chemical industry should war break out. ... 

The amounts appropriated to the CWS were arrived at only after the most painstaking calculations. As previously, the CWS passed its estimates on to the General Staff, but in June 1940 Mr, Knudsen also become interested in the estimates. On 11 June Mr. Knudsen informed the Assistant Secretary of War that he wanted the answers to two questions "How much munitions productive capacity does this country need and how rapidly must it become available. That Mr. Knudsen did not confine his attention solely to the broad aspects of these questions is shown by the fact that on the very day he made his inquiry he personally received a reply from the Chief, CWS, listing quantities and unit prices of critical items as approved by the War Department for procurement and manufacture by CWS, as well as supplemental lists of critical and essential items. Six days later the Chief, CWS, in a memorandum to the Assistant Secretary of War, gave detailed data on the new arsenal and plant facilities that would be needed to meet the requirements of the PMP (1,000,000 men), and its augmentation to 4,000,000 men, and requested that the data be passed on to Commissioner Knudsen, who was evidently anxious to get the facts. The Chief, CWS, listed the rehabilitation of Edgewood Arsenal which he estimated would require 15 months to complete, a new 21,000,000 arsenal to require 18 months, and 5,000,000 worth of government owned plants in industry to require 15 months to complete. 

These same files, supplemented by other source material, were consulted for the emergency and war periods. The author found valuable information on the Chemical Advisory Committee to the Army-Navy Munitions Board in the files of the Chlorine Institute and the Manufacturing Chemists Association. He also searched the retired files of the Army-Navy Munitions Board, some of which were in the National Archives and others in the Pentagon. He obtained data on various aspects of CWS procurement and distribution from retired files of the Assistant Secretary of War (ASW), the Under Secretary of War (USW), the Army Service Forces (ASF), the Operations Division (OPD) of the War Department General Staff, the War Production Board (WPD), and the War Department Manpower Board (WDMB), all in the National Archives. 

By the end of the war, gas was clearly in the ascendant. German gas production continued right up to the Armistice, although transport and distribution were disorganised. Allied gas production was increasing plans for 1919 envisaged British production of 4000 tons of gas per month, while Fries recommended US production of 14 900 tons per month. In 1920 Benedict Crowell (former US Assistant Secretary of War) testified that an offensive in 1919. .. would have been a walk to Berlin due to chemical warfare . 

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