diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/config/file.go b/pkg/kubelet/config/file.go
index edd3e7615f6..a53b826235e 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/config/file.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/config/file.go
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ import (
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/api"
+	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/api/v1beta1"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/kubelet"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/types"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/util"
@@ -145,13 +146,26 @@ func extractFromFile(filename string) (api.BoundPod, error) {
 		return pod, err
 	}
 
-	manifest := &api.ContainerManifest{}
 	// TODO: use api.Scheme.DecodeInto
-	if err := yaml.Unmarshal(data, manifest); err != nil {
+	// This is awful.  DecodeInto() expects to find an APIObject, which
+	// Manifest is not.  We keep reading manifest for now for compat, but
+	// we will eventually change it to read Pod (at which point this all
+	// becomes nicer).  Until then, we assert that the ContainerManifest
+	// structure on disk is always v1beta1.  Read that, convert it to a
+	// "current" ContainerManifest (should be ~identical), then convert
+	// that to a BoundPod (which is a well-understood conversion).  This
+	// avoids writing a v1beta1.ContainerManifest -> api.BoundPod
+	// conversion which would be identical to the api.ContainerManifest ->
+	// api.BoundPod conversion.
+	oldManifest := &v1beta1.ContainerManifest{}
+	if err := yaml.Unmarshal(data, oldManifest); err != nil {
 		return pod, fmt.Errorf("can't unmarshal file %q: %v", filename, err)
 	}
-
-	if err := api.Scheme.Convert(manifest, &pod); err != nil {
+	newManifest := &api.ContainerManifest{}
+	if err := api.Scheme.Convert(oldManifest, newManifest); err != nil {
+		return pod, fmt.Errorf("can't convert pod from file %q: %v", filename, err)
+	}
+	if err := api.Scheme.Convert(newManifest, &pod); err != nil {
 		return pod, fmt.Errorf("can't convert pod from file %q: %v", filename, err)
 	}
 
diff --git a/pkg/kubelet/config/file_test.go b/pkg/kubelet/config/file_test.go
index 4716f6d2606..34f5332bec6 100644
--- a/pkg/kubelet/config/file_test.go
+++ b/pkg/kubelet/config/file_test.go
@@ -26,27 +26,28 @@ import (
 	"time"
 
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/api"
+	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/api/v1beta1"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/api/validation"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/kubelet"
 	"github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/pkg/types"
 )
 
-func ExampleManifestAndPod(id string) (api.ContainerManifest, api.BoundPod) {
-	manifest := api.ContainerManifest{
+func ExampleManifestAndPod(id string) (v1beta1.ContainerManifest, api.BoundPod) {
+	manifest := v1beta1.ContainerManifest{
 		ID:   id,
 		UUID: types.UID(id),
-		Containers: []api.Container{
+		Containers: []v1beta1.Container{
 			{
 				Name:  "c" + id,
 				Image: "foo",
 				TerminationMessagePath: "/somepath",
 			},
 		},
-		Volumes: []api.Volume{
+		Volumes: []v1beta1.Volume{
 			{
 				Name: "host-dir",
-				Source: api.VolumeSource{
-					HostPath: &api.HostPath{"/dir/path"},
+				Source: v1beta1.VolumeSource{
+					HostDir: &v1beta1.HostPath{"/dir/path"},
 				},
 			},
 		},
@@ -120,7 +121,7 @@ func TestReadFromFile(t *testing.T) {
 			"version": "v1beta1",
 			"uuid": "12345",
 			"id": "test",
-			"containers": [{ "image": "test/image" }]
+			"containers": [{ "image": "test/image", imagePullPolicy: "PullAlways"}]
 		}`)
 	defer os.Remove(file.Name())
 
@@ -137,7 +138,13 @@ func TestReadFromFile(t *testing.T) {
 				SelfLink:  "",
 			},
 			Spec: api.PodSpec{
-				Containers: []api.Container{{Image: "test/image", TerminationMessagePath: "/dev/termination-log"}},
+				Containers: []api.Container{
+					{
+						Image: "test/image",
+						TerminationMessagePath: "/dev/termination-log",
+						ImagePullPolicy:        api.PullAlways,
+					},
+				},
 			},
 		})
 
@@ -224,7 +231,7 @@ func TestExtractFromDir(t *testing.T) {
 	manifest, expectedPod := ExampleManifestAndPod("1")
 	manifest2, expectedPod2 := ExampleManifestAndPod("2")
 
-	manifests := []api.ContainerManifest{manifest, manifest2}
+	manifests := []v1beta1.ContainerManifest{manifest, manifest2}
 	pods := []api.BoundPod{expectedPod, expectedPod2}
 	files := make([]*os.File, len(manifests))