McCone, John A. (John Alex), 1902-1991

John A. McCone (1902-1991) was a graduate from the College of Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, in 1922. He began his long career as a riveter and boiler-maker for the Llewellen Iron Works in Los Angeles. He eventually became superintendent of this company. In 1937, after holding various executive positions with Consolidated Steel Corporation, he organized his own firm, Bechtel-McCone, a major designer and producer of petroleum refineries and power plants throughout the United States and other parts of the world. In World War II McCone became President and Director of the California Shipping Corporation. After the war he took over the Joshua Hendy Iron Works and served as director and then chairman until 1969 when he became chairman of Hendy International Company. McCone saw his first federal government service as a member of President Truman''s Air Policy Commission in 1947. His work on this commission focused on military aspects of air policy. In 1948 he served as a special deputy to Secretary of Defense James Forrestal and in 1950 and 1951 held the post of Under Secretary of the Air Force. At that time he urged President Truman to establish an embryonic missile program under an individual with firm control over the effort. This proposal later earned McCone praise from the New York Herald Tribune as "a prophet with honor." McCone first met General Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1947, beginning a long and close personal relationship. As a member of the Air Policy Commission, McCone discussed military aircraft problems with General Eisenhower. Later, as Under secretary of the Air Force, McCone assisted in obtaining high ranking Air Force officers for General Eisenhower''s SHAPE staff, including General Lauris Norstad. McCone also discussed a nuclear capability for NATO with General Eisenhower. When Eisenhower became President he offered McCone the position of Secretary of the Air Force. McCone did not accept this offer but in 1954 did serve as a member of the Wriston Commission which recommended certain reforms of the United States Foreign Service. In 1958 McCone accepted the chairmanship of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). As Chairman of the AEC McCone devoted much time to grappling with problems associated with nuclear testing and, specifically, trying to negotiate a nuclear test ban treaty with the Soviet Union. McCone opposed the moratorium on atmospheric tests imposed by President Eisenhower in 1958 in the absence of a treaty. He saw his responsibility as Chairman of the AEC as being to oversee the development of weapons as sophisticated as necessary for military use and believed that the test moratorium would retard this development. He strongly believed in writing into any treaty with the Soviets firm provisions for verification and inspection to safeguard against covert testing. Although representatives of the United States, Soviet Union, and United Kingdom conducted nuclear test negotiations at Geneva, Switzerland through outmost of McCone''s tenure as Chairman, the negotiations foundered largely on the issue of inspection and no treaty on atmospheric testing was signed until 1963.When McCone became Chairman of the AEC he inherited a bad relationship between certain members of the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy and his predecessor, Lewis Strauss. McCone tried to improve working relations with the Committee and adopted a policy of providing intelligence briefings on Soviet nuclear capabilities to the Committee. Other issues with which McCone dealt as Chairman included the question of public versus private power, cooperation with foreign countries on peaceful uses of atomic energy, and the safety of nuclear power facilities. On occasion the President sought McCone''s advice on matters other than atomic energy, such as the space budget. McCone regularly attended National Security Council and Cabinet meetings. McCone''s government service did not end when President Eisenhower left office in 1961. Later that year President John F. Kennedy picked him as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, a post which he held until 1965 when he returned to private business.

From the description of McCone, John A. (John Alex), 1902-1991 (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration). naId: 10679378

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