my schools. The committee could not demand any less, he confessed,
in light of the President's order.[14-79]

[Footnote 14-79: Ltrs, Fahy to SecDef and SA, 25 Jul
49; idem to President, 27 Jul 49. All in FC file.]

The committee and the Army had reached a stalemate. As a staff member
of the Personnel Policy Board put it, their latest proposal and
counterproposals were simply extensions of what had long been put
forth by both parties. He advised Chairman Reid to remain neutral
until both sides presented their "total proposal."[14-80] But the
press was not remaining neutral. The New York _Times_, for example,
accused the Army of stalling and equivocating, engaging in a "private
insurrection," and trying "to preserve a pattern of bigotry which
caricatures the democratic cause in every corner of the world." There
was no room for compromise, the _Times_ added, and President Truman
could not retreat without abdicating as Commander in Chief.[14-81]
Secretary Gray countered with a statement that the Army was still (p. 364)
under injunction from the Secretary of Defense to submit a new race
program, and he was contemplating certain new proposals on the
military occupational specialty issue.[14-82]

[Footnote 14-80: Memo, Col J. F. Cassidy for Reid, 23
Aug 49, sub: Equality of Treatment and Opportunity
in the Department of the Army, FC file.]

[Footnote 14-81: New York _Times_, July 16 and 18,
1949.]

[Footnote 14-82: Interv, NBC's "Meet the Press" with
Gordon Gray, 18 Jul 49; Ltr, SecDef to Charles
Fahy, 3 Aug 49, FC file.]

The Army staff did prepare another reply for the Secretary of Defense,
and on 16 September Gray met with Fahy and others to discuss it.
General Wade H. Haislip, the Vice Chief of Staff, claimed privately to
Gray that the new reply was almost identical with the plan presented
to the committee on 5 July and that the new concessions on
occupational specialties would only require the conversion of some
units from white to black.[14-83] Haislip, however, had not reckoned
with the concession that Gray was prepared to make to Fahy. Gray
accepted in principle the committee's argument that the assignment of
black graduates of specialist schools should not be limited to black
units or overhead positions but could be used to