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In August 1950, with typical foresight, he recommended to President Truman that the U.S.'s embryo guided-missile program be conducted by a man with full authority and control of funds to exercise "absolute power over the entire effort," counseled a similar course when President Eisenhower called for help in the Sputnik I uproar. Although he resigned in 1951 from his Air Force job, McCone repeatedly returned to public life: in 1952 he made a five-day inspection of the Korean air front for Finletter and Air Force Chief of Staff Hoyt Vandenberg (recommendation: "more training"); in 1954 he served on the Wriston committee, organized to recommend ways of strengthening and modernizing the diplomatic service; in 1956, as a ranking Roman Catholic layman, he was appointed by Ike to represent the U.S. in Rome at the observances of Pope Pius XII's 17th installation anniversary.
The New Job. A longtime friend of the President, McCone has often been an unpublicized visitor at the White House, where he has joined Ike for end-of-day, feet-on-table meetings in the upstairs study. At Ike's behest, too, Defense Secretary Neil McElroy has called on McCone for advice on defense reorganization. AEC's Strauss for at least four years has been trying to get McCone to join the AEC. Having finally agreed, at considerable wrench to his personal life, John McCone will characteristically dig deep for his own answers in the growing national atomic debate.