ittee's report to the Vice President for
comment. Indicative of the Pentagon's continuing
influence in the committee's work, the Kennedy
letter had been drafted by Gesell and Yarmolinsky;
see Memo, Yarmolinsky for White, 8 Jun 63, White
Collection, J. F. Kennedy Library.]

[Footnote 21-58: Memo, SecDef for SA et al., 27 Jun
63, sub: Report of the President's Committee on
Equal Opportunity in the Armed Forces; see also
Memo, ASD (M) for SecDef, 27 Jun 63; both in ASD
(M) 291.2.]

[Footnote 21-59: Memo, Dep Under SA (M) for SecDef
(ca. 10 Jul 63), with service comments attached,
copy in ASD (M) 291.2.]

[Footnote 21-60: Memo, SecNav for ASD (M), 10 Jul 63,
sub; Report of the President's Committee on Equal
Opportunity in the Armed Forces, SecNav file 5410,
GenRecsNav.]

[Footnote 21-61: Memo, SecAF for ASD (M), 10 Jul 63,
sub: Air Force Response to the Gesell Committee
Report, SecAF files.]

Despite the opposition to these recommendations, Fitt saw room for
compromise between the committee and the services. Noting, for
example, that the services wanted to do their own monitoring of their
commander's performance, Fitt agreed this would be acceptable so long
as the Secretary of Defense could monitor the monitors. Adding that
officers, like other human beings, tended to concentrate on the tasks
that would be reviewed by superiors, he wanted to see a judgment of a
commander's ability to handle discrimination matters included in (p. 547)
the narrative portion of his efficiency report. On the question of
sanctions, Fitt pointed out to McNamara that the services now
understood that their equal opportunity responsibilities extended
beyond the limits of the military reservation but that several of
their objections to the use of sanctions were sound. He suggested the
secretary approve the use of sanctions in discrimination cases but
place severe restraints on their imposition, restricting the decision
to the secretary's office.

[Illustration: ALFRED FITT.]

This suggestion no doubt pleased McNamara. Although the committee's
recommendations might be