The answer to this question has not yet been given. However, as soon as it is, we will get in touch with you.
Sincerely,
Gerald D. Morgan,
Special Counsel to the President
October 26, 1956
Mr. Clark R. Mollenhoff,
Des Moines Register and Tribune,
National Press Building, Washington, D.C.
Dear Clark: At the press conference on September 27, 1956, you asked the President whether “all employees of the Federal Government, at their own discretion, can determine whether they will testify or will not testify before congressional committees when there is no security problem involved.”
In the President’s letter of May 17, 1954, to Secretary Wilson, the President set forth the general principles that are to govern all employees in the executive branch concerning their testimony, or the production of documents, relating to their conversations or communications with, or their advice to, each other on official matters. In his press conference of July 6, 1955, the President further amplified the principles set forth in this letter as follows:
“If anybody in an official position of this Government does anything which is an official act, and submits it either in the form of recommendation or anything else, that is properly a matter for investigation if Congress so chooses, provided the national security is not involved.
“But when it comes to the conversations that take place between any responsible official and his advisers, or exchange of mere little slips, of this or that, expressing personal opinions on the most confidential basis, those are not subject to investigation by anybody. And if they are it will wreck the Government.”
In so writing to Secretary Wilson, and in further amplifying these principles, the President was exercising a right, which is his, and his alone, to determine what action is necessary to maintain the proper separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of the Government. In the orderly administration of the Government, the head of each executive agency directs the manner in which these principles are enforced.
The underlying reasons for these principles are set forth in the President’s letter of May 17, 1954. It is essential to efficient and effective administration that employees of the executive branch be in a position to be completely candid in advising each other on official matters. It is essential, if channels of information are to be kept open, that confidences among employees should not be breached.