thdrawn as a result of
criticism in the House. One cause of this criticism
was his connection with the Gesell Committee. See
Mary McGrory, "A Southern Hatchet Fell," Washington
_Star_, August 10, 1964.]

_The Gesell Committee: Final Report_

While the argument over the McNamara directive raged, the Gesell
Committee worked quietly if intermittently on the final segment of its
investigation, the status of blacks stationed overseas and in the
National Guard. President Kennedy's death in November 1963 introduced
an element of uncertainty in a group serving at the pleasure of the
Chief Executive. Special Presidential Counsel Lee C. White arranged
for Gesell to meet with President Lyndon B. Johnson, and Gesell
offered to disband the committee if Johnson wished. The President left
it in being. As Gesell later observed: "The committee felt that
Johnson understood us and our work in a way better than Kennedy who
had no clear idea on how to go with the race issue. We had no trouble
with Johnson who could have stopped us if he wanted."[21-78]

[Footnote 21-78: The quote is from author's interview
with Gesell on 13 May 1972. See also Ltr, White to
Gesell, 8 Jan 64, and Memo, Gesell for Members of
the Committee, 26 Feb 64, both in Gesell
Collection, J. F. Kennedy Library.]

The committee's operations became even more informal in this final
stage. Its investigations completed, its staff dissolved, and its
members (now one man short with the resignation of Nathaniel Colley)
scattered, the committee operated out of Gesell's law office. He was
almost exclusively responsible for its final report.[21-79] This
informality masked the protracted negotiations that the committee
conducted with the National Guard Bureau over the persistent exclusion
of Negroes. It also masked the solid investigation by individual
committee members and the voluminous evidence gathered by the staff in
support of the group's final report.

[Footnote 21-79: Memo, Gesell for Members of the
Committee, 26 Feb 64.]

These investigations and the documentary evidence again confirmed the
findings of the Civil Rights Commission, although the Gesell
Committee's emphasis was different. It dismissed the problem of
assignment of Negroes to overseas stations. The