or Air Force yet been reviewed by
the Secretary of Defense. The President's committee would probably
make such a review an early order of business. Meanwhile, the Army's
race policy would continue in effect until it was altered either by
Forrestal's office or by action from some other source.[13-37]

[Footnote 13-37: Memo (unsigned), Forrestal for
Royall, 22 Sep 48. The answer was prepared by Leva
and used by Forrestal as the basis for his
conversation with Royall. See Memos, Leva for
Forrestal, undated, and 30 Sep 48, both in
CD30-1-2, SecDef files.]

Even as Secretary Royall tried to defend the Army from the attacks of
the press, the service's policy was challenged from another quarter.
The blunt fact was that with the reinstitution of selective service in
1948 the Army was receiving more black recruits--especially those in
the lower mental categories--than a segregated system could easily
absorb. The high percentage of black soldiers so proudly publicized by
Royall at the National Defense Conference was in fact a source of
anxiety for Army planners. The staff particularly resented the
different standards adopted by the other services to determine (p. 325)
the acceptability of selectees. The Navy and Air Force, pleading their
need for skilled workers and dependence on volunteer enlistments,
imposed a higher minimum achievement score for admission than the
Army, which, largely dependent upon the draft for its manpower, was
required to accept men with lower scores. Thousands of Negroes, less
skilled and with little education, were therefore eligible for service
in the Army although they were excluded from the Navy and Air Force.
Given such circumstances, it was probably inevitable that differences
in racial policies would precipitate an interservice conflict. The
Army claimed the difference in enlistment standards was discriminatory
and contrary to the provisions of the draft law which required the
Secretary of Defense to set enlistment standards. In April 1948
Secretary Royall demanded that Forrestal impose the same mental
standards on all the services. He wanted inductees allocated to the
services according to their physical and mental abilities and Negroes
apportioned among them.

The other services countered that there were not enough well-educated
people of draft age to justify raising the Army'