REF ID:A39441 

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Mliter Of Fact .w~>~ ··:~·-· ··,:,, 

?o<;\ \ ~ l1~ s-~. . • By Joseph and Stewa~ · !lsOp · 

lmporta.nce of the Kelly Report----------1 

THE TEST of the seriousness, and indeed of the com-

! mon honesty, of the new 

1 Administration's defense plan-

. ning is coming very suon. It 

: will take the form of a re-

~ port on the American air de-

; fense· problem by a special 

~ committee headed by this 

· '. country's leading industrialist-

,: scientist, Mervin Kelly of the 

, Bell Laboratories. 

I Only a few Pentagon plan-

' ners, seientists and other 

· specialists know about -this 

Kelly rip 1 which may even have be. · · ndered already. 

Yet the really ought to 

be wai ·" r the Kelly report with .. · anxious interest, 

and t:~ <ODcorn, of a patient:·· · · g to hear his . docto:i'!ik ict in a life and 

death. ·· ., ·/i.'he circumstances 

are enough to explain why. As previously revealed in 

this space., 'the American Government· 'j.>as shaken, last 

autumn, by drastic findings ,about our air defense situation. These findings were made 

by Project Lincoln, a research 

group directed by the Massachusetts . Institute, of · Technology- on Air Force contracts, 

which comprised the most 

authoritative scientifi-c team 

ever assemblea in this country_ in peacetime. The Lincoin findings may be brieB.y 

summarized as 'follows. 

fl'+JI 

FIRST, the existing and 

presently planned American 

air defense system is virtually 

worthless. 

Second, the parallel growth 

of the Soviet atomic stockpile and the Soviet strategic air 

arm will enable the Kremlin 

to launch a "devastating" airatomic attack on this country within two or three years. 

Third, therefore, if we do 

not wish to be nakedly exposed to air-atomic destruction at the will of the Kremlin, 

a costly and urge.nt effort must 

be made to build a truly ef-

·fective :American air defense 

system, . exploiting certain 

"technological break-throughs" pointed out by the Lincoln 

scientists. 

an ambitietus effort to beef up 

our interceptor force and to 

extend its bases, so that any 

attacker would be exposed to t 

wave after wave of intercep- I 

ti on. ! 

'unless the best authorities i 

are misleading, the Kelly Com- I 

mittee has recommended or 

will shortly recommend a compromise program. This program is understood to have 

only two main features-first, 

a fully automatic air defense 

communications system; and 

second, experimental extension of the air warning net to 

provide three hours warning, including extension of the net 

along the · now neglected sea 

flanks. 

o+.I 

EVEN . this truncated pi"Qo 

gram will be expensive, :•1' 

though it will certairi.ly · cost. 

far less than the estimated 

Lincoln total of perhaps five. 

billion dollars for the first. 

·year. Moreover, the Kelty .. '. 

Committee is understood ti;> 

pass rather lightly over the 

problem of our interceptor , force .. but the Defense De· I 

partdtent is in no po!Sition to . do so. , · 

Despite the immense weight of scientific authority behind 

them, such findings as these 

could hardly be accepted without careful review. Hence 

former· Secretary of Defense 

Lovett named the .. Kelly Committee, including the eminent 

physicii;t, Prof. Charles Lauritsen, President Hovde of Purdue, representing education, 

and several top B.ight business 

men. President Eisenhower 

asked the committee to finish 

its task. Whether or not the 

&mmittee has now reported, ------•-•1 a good deal is known about its 

tendency .. 

Our air defense command 

now comprises about 1800 aircraft, mostly inadequate or 

flagrantly. obsolete, including 

at least one squadron of World 

War II P·5ls. First class allweather fighters, which are the 

real need, are coniing in ap· 1 

pallingly slowly. There is no 

proper chain of forward bases .. Better point defenses will be f 

provided by the Army's "nike" · guided missile; but "'nike" is 

not aboslutely dependable, and 

point defenses bear about the 

same relation to a full air defense system as one molar 

bears to a full set of teeth. 

Most important of all, it is 

known that the Lincoln 

scientists' dark estimate of the 

danger ahead has been broadly sustained. There may be, and 

there are, arguments about 

whether the time of utmost 

danger will begin in 1954-'55, 

or in 1955-'56, or in 1956·'57. 

But the Kelly Committee has 

agreed with the Lincoln findi ings that the Kremlin is now 

I

' gaining the capability of de- ._-_ stroying the country_ by airatomic attack. 

fl'+JI 

In short, the most modest 

measures io safeguard this 

country from air-atomic attack will require . a rather 

complete reversal of the :present defense policy o(, cu~ck and slow-down. This is:f the 

big test that Secretacy of D!!-

fense Wilsqμ has shortly . got 

to JX).eet. . . 

THIS estimate of future 

danger is also understood to 

have been accepted by President Eisenhower himself,.when 

certain eminent scientigfs recently presented the pr8blem 

to him. Nor is the existence of 

the danger denied by the air 

staff, despite the empty attacks 

by some of the air generals 

on "air Maginot lines." In 

short the danger must now be 

treated as a hard fact. · 

C01>1rl&bt. 1953. N. Y. Berald Tr"1f~~_:_ 

The question remains, what 

must now be dorie in order to ' 

ward off this future danger? ~ The Lincoln program, whieh , 1 was . admittedly highly experi- ; 

mental, had three main ' 

features-first, a novel- air 

1 warning net extended outward 

1 to the most distant· continen-

' tal approaches, providing six 

or seven hours warning; second, a fully automatic or 

"cybernetic" air defense communications system; and third,