This plan is still applicable,” wrote the Joint Strategic Plans Committee. “It requires only minor changes in wording and form.” Plan Classroom was approved by Forrestal, but then Forrestal killed himself. Eventually it was resubmitted to the new secretary of defense, Louis Johnson, a temperamental lawyer who had raised a lot of money for Harry Truman’s campaign.

Nicholson Baker, Baseless- My Search for Sec…, loc. 890