October, he was promoted to brigadier general and was awarded the Legion of Merit for "his foresight and careful planning, consummate tact, unusual ability and vigor" during his service with the Legislative and Liaison Division of the War Department Special Staff. He received his discharge on December 9, 1945. Postwar career On January 9, 1946, Cutler succeeded Channing H. Cox as president of the Old Colony Trust Company. He was later elected president of Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. From 1947 to 1949, he headed the largest survey of hospital, health, and welfare facilities in New England. 1952 presidential campaign In 1952, Cutler served as Eisenhower's personal secretary on the campaign train, a position that had him perform a number of tasks, including speechwriting and advising. U.S. News & World Report described Cutler as "emerging as the right-hand man of the General" and "probably closer to the candidate in a personal sense than Gov. Sherman Adams, who is generally regard as top man." National Security Advisor On December 29, 1952, President-elect Eisenhower appointed Cutler as assistant to the president for national security affairs. In that position, Cutler played a major role in turning the National Security Council into a top policy making body. He tendered his resignation on March 8, 1955, and was succeeded by Dillon Anderson on April 1. On March 31, 1955, he received the Medal of Freedom for his "outstanding contribution to the security and defense of our nation. Cutler oversaw the drafting of Eisenhower's Executive Order 10450, signed on April 27, 1953, contributing language that identified "sexual perversion" as grounds for exclusion from employment by the federal government. It represented an attempt to fulfill Eisenhower's campaign promise, made in response to charges made by Senator Joseph McCarthy, to remove "subversives" from the federal government. The order initiated the years-long purge of gays and lesbians from employment by the federal government, the Lavender Scare component of the Red Scare witch hunts of the 1950s. Cutler resigned his post in 1955 apparently for fear that the disclosure of his secret homosexuality might harm the Eisenhower administration. His homosexuality was known to some Washington insiders, including the prominent columnist Joseph Alsop, a closet gay himself, and Charles Bohlen, whose nomination as ambassador to Moscow had been threatened by McCarthy's innuendo about his sexuality. In May 1955, Cutler returned to the National Security Council as a part-time consultant and took its