Letter of Transmittal
To the convener of this group:
Attached is the Report of the Special Study Group established by you
in August, 1963,
1) to consider the problems involved in the
contingency of a transition to a general condition of peace, and
2)
to recommend procedures for dealing with this contingency.
For the
convenience of nontechnical readers we have elected to submit our
statistical supporting data, totaling 604 exhibits, separately, as
well as a preliminary manual of the "peace games" method devised
during the course of our study.
We have completed our assignment to the best of our ability, subject
to the limitations of time and resources available to us. Our
conclusions of fact and our recommendations are unanimous; those of
us who differ in certain secondary respects from the findings set
forth herein do not consider these differences sufficient to warrant
the filing of a minority report. It is our earnest hope that the
fruits of our deliberations will be of value to our government in
its efforts to provide leadership to the nation in solving the
complex and far-reaching problems we have examined, and that our
recommendations for subsequent Presidential action in this area will
be adopted.
Because of the unusual circumstances surrounding the establishment
of this Group, and in view of the nature of its finding, we do not
recommend that this Report be released for publication. It is our
affirmative judgment that such actions would not be in the public
interest. The uncertain advantages of public discussion of our
conclusions and recommendations are, in our opinion, greatly
outweighed by the clear and predictable danger of a crisis in public
confidence which untimely publication of this Report might be
expected to provoke. The likelihood that a lay reader, unexposed to
the exigencies of higher political or military responsibility, will
misconstrue the purpose of this project, and the intent of its
participants, seems obvious. We urge that circulation of this Report
be closely restricted to those whose responsibilities require that
they be apprised of its contents.
We deeply regret that the necessity of anonymity, a prerequisite to
our Group’s unhindered pursuit of its objectives, precludes proper
acknowledgement of our gratitude to the many persons in and out of
government who contributed so greatly to our work.
For the Special Study Group
[signature withheld]
30 September, 1966