REF ID:A42942 

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Grow Stolen Diary Incident Gives Support 

To Advocates of Separate G-2 Career Service 

By John G. Norris 

Poat RIUIOlltBZ' 

The Grow stolen diary lncldent hat focused attention on 

Army intelligence-its virtues 

and faillngs--and lent support 

to advocates of a G-2 career service. 

vert, good at meeting people, 

energetic, and positive in his 

views. 

Should an officer with more intelligence experience have been 

named instead? On this there is 

dispute. Some feel that Growexcept for the diary incidentIn other words, how good is was a first-rate attache. A dis· 

our military intelligence today? tinction can be made between 

Is Maj. Gen. Robert w. Grow- attaches and other intelligence whose compromised diary has personnel. It is clear that the 

given Communist propagandists requirements for an attache to 

a powerful weapon in the Cold the NATO countries differ from 

War-a good example of our in- those assigned behind the Iron , telligence personnel? or should Curtain and that a good "legwe build a corps of specialists in man" abroad may not be a good this vital field? intelligence analyst here. 

These questions are being dis- There is agreement, however, 

cussed at the Pentagon as an that career specialization is necaftermath of the disclosure that essary in the intelligence field. 

America's military attache to What we need is not a separate 

Moscow kept a di&llY in which he MAJ. GEN. ROBERT GROW G-2 staff corps, most Army men 

told of his information-seeking feel, but a long-time buildup of ' 

activities in Russia and ex- . a sizeable number of high-grade pressed his personal conviction ments Bollin.g p~t over last ye~ officers who rotate between . inwe should attack the U.S.S.R. was authonzation for intelh- telligence and troop service, 

This diary was surreptitiously gence specialization in the Amer- which is Bolling's plan. A G-2er 

photographed by Communist ican Army who moves from one embassy to 

agents and widely used as anti- G ·G h • another, with an occasional inAmerican propaganda in Europe. eneral row, ow~~er, never telllgence staff assignment soon 

Those familiar with what has had served as a military at- gets to be looked upon askance. 

happened in military intelligence tache before his assignment to As one officer put it: "An insince the end of World War II Moscow a year a~o last sum- telligence officer should be able 

agree that the changes have been mer. Moscow is -the Army's to do more than just know a 

all for the better. top military attache pos1i, rating tank when he sees one. He's 

Washington correspondents re- a two-star general, compared to got to have and keep enough call that just after Gen. Dwight brigadiers in London, Paris and military know-how to recognize 

W. Eisenhower returned to one or two other spots, and what's new about it and write a 

America after VE-day, he held a lesser ranking officers elsewhere. comprehensive report that will 

rather low opinion of our in- Grow's only prior intelligence be of value to our experts back 

telligence. Ike rated British as experience, as far as his of· home." 

tops and listed the United States ficial military biography shows, Advocates of this type of 

and Russia far down. The North was as head of the military mis· specialization have a precedent 

Korean surprise attack and sion to Iran, just before going to back them. For years, the 

China's subsequent entry into to Russia after he had become Navy has been recognized as the 

the fight did not cause newsmen a major and this was largely a most adroit of the military here to revise Eisenhower's sum- training assignment. forces in such fields as person- mation. Some c r it i c s feel that the nel, budget, base construction, 

Under its present chief, Maj. Grow incident does not reflect and other logistical problems. Gen. Alexander R. Bolling, how- against military intelligence, but One explanation for this has 

ever, G-2 has made a number against the Pentagon assumption been that their ablest officers 

of far reaching reforms. But it that a good line major generaJ. alternated between sea duty takes time to build. British in- can do anything. General Grow and the same specialty ashore. 

telligence, for example, is bun- had been a successful combat By the' time they become addreds of years old. Britain has commander during the war. Like mirals, the best Of them were 

a hard corps of specialists in its another former c a v a Ir y m a n pretty good at both commanding G-2 service-something we never turned tankman-the late Gen. sea forces and some speciality have had. 0 e of the improve- George Patton-he is an extro- ashore.