an Charles C. Diggs, Jr.,
23 Oct 58. See also Memo, Dep Dir of Mil Pers,
USAF, for Asst SecAF (Manpower, Pers, and Res
Forces), 9 Oct 58, sub: Dependent Schools. All in
OASD (M&P) 291.2.]

The department would not get off the hook so easily; the President
wanted something done about the Little Rock school, although he wanted
his interest kept quiet.[19-91] Yet any action would have unpleasant
consequences. If the department transferred the father, it was open to
a court suit on his behalf; if it tried to force integration on the
local authorities, they would close the school. Since neither course
was acceptable, Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles C. Finucane
ordered his troubleshooter, Stephen Jackson, to Little Rock to
investigate.[19-92]

[Footnote 19-91: Memo, Lt Col Winston P. Anderson,
Exec Off, Asst SecAF (M&P), for Asst SecAF (M&P),
24 Nov 58, SecAF files.]

[Footnote 19-92: Memo, ASD (MP&R) for SA et al., 10
Oct 58, OASD (MP&R) 291.2; Memo for Rcd, Spec Asst
to Asst SecAF, 17 Oct 58, sub: Meeting With Mr.
Finucane and Mr. Jackson re Little Rock Air Force
Base, SecAF files.]

Before he went to Little Rock, Jackson met with officials from the
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare and decided, with the
concurrence of the Department of Justice, that the solution lay in
government purchase of the land. The school would then be on a
military base and subject to integration. Should local authorities
refuse to operate the integrated on-base school, the Air Force would
do so. In that event, Jackson warned local officials on his arrival in
Arkansas, the school district would lose much of its federal
enrollment and hence its very important federal subsidy. Nor could the
board be assured that the federal acquisition would be limited to one
school. Jackson later admitted the local black school had also been
constructed with federal funds, and he could not guarantee that it
would escape federal acquisition. Board members queried Jackson on
this point, introducing the possibility that the federal government
might try to acquire local high schools, also attended in large
numbers by military dependents and also segregated. Jackson assured
the school board that the department "had no desire