The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Legion of Merit to Rear Admiral Paul L. Dudley, United States Navy, for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services to the Government of the United States as Special Assistant to the Joint Chiefs of Staff for Disarmament Affairs from December 1959 to June 1961. An extremely able officer and diplomat, Rear Admiral Dudley has provided this nation distinguished service in one of the most difficult and demanding positions in the Department of Defense. During this period, he served as the Senior U.S. Military Advisor and as the representative of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Conference of the Ten-Nation Committee on Disarmament in Geneva, making superlative contributions to the preservation of national security by clearly and forcefully presenting the military position in each of the highly complex subjects involved.