Following a meeting of service chiefs a month earlier, Secretary of Defense James V. Forrestal issues a memo that will come to be known as the “Key West Agreement” that defines the role and responsibilities of the services. The memo assigns the primary responsibility for air defense of the United States to the Air Force.
With a fresh directive from the president, the department could opt to repeat its unconventional—and potentially unlawful—move to pay troops using unused non-personnel appropriations.
