Appendix D), Set Out an Ill-Defined Claim That the National Interest

was at stake. The letter contained some terminology that seemed to claim an absolute right to bar testimony before Congress by any subordinate career officials. It was attacked by Senator Strom Thurmond, the South Carolina Democrat, as a “dangerous” precedent that would have barred Congress from investigating the Pearl Harbor disaster or obtaining information on a wide variety of scandals.

Many political writers excused President Kennedy. Some pointed to language in the letter they said indicated that he was not setting a broad precedent but was merely shutting off an investigation they considered to be senseless. Representative Moss declared that the Senate subcommittee had the legal right to ask the questions to determine which censors had blue-penciled which speeches.

It was not clear immediately whether the February 8 letter was to be an isolated incident or a troublesome broad precedent for more arbitrary secrecy in the tradition of the May 17, 1954, Eisenhower letter.