The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1921-12-06

~SAASS Va VAA0S OSStAOAAAShNs
freedom of action. and are thoroughly
PREPARED.
Let us not fall into the trap Of
supposing that these wars will follow
the lines Of the great war of 1914-18
and that we shall have a rapid line
up of great entrenched armies. with
massed parks of artillery behind
them, tank attacks. and all the rest
of 1t. That sort of war is already
out of faahion, and the fact that
these wars that we are considering
will be overseas wars puts any pos
sibility of such q deadlock Of land
armies out Of the case, The COM
batants will have to set about get
ting at each other in quite other
fashions.
Propaganda Il New Ammunition.
Let US recall the maxim that the
object Of all fighting Is to produce
a state of mind In the adversary, a
state of mind conducive to a discon-
tinuance of the struggle and to sub
mission and acquiescence to the will
of the victor. Old-time wars aimed
simply at the small antagonist army
and at the antagonist government,
but in these democratic days. the
WILL for peace or war has descend
cu diHoHS tHc PcoPio aHu uAAuoou
itself among them, and 1t IL the
state Of mind of the whole enemy
population that has become the OBJ
jective in war. The old idea Of an
invading army marching on a capt.
tai gives place, therefore, to a new
conception of an attack through
propaganda, through operations de-
signed to produce acute economic
distress, and through the air. upon
the enemy population.
I will take the latter branch first.
Few people have any clear ideas at
present of the possibilities of air war
fare. The closing years of the great
war gave the world only a very slight
experience Of what aerial offensives
can be. Always~air operations were
subsidiary to the vast surface engage
ments of the European belligerents;
they were scouting. irritating. raiding
operations; there were neither the
funds nor the energy available to work
them out thoroughly.
In these possible overseas wars we
are considering, the land armies and
the big guns will not be the main fac
tors, and II a air and sea forces will.
The po,, .rs we have considered will
therefore push their air equipment on
quite different scale: they will be
bound to deliver their chief blows with
1t! we may certainly reckon on the
biggest long-range airplanes possible,
on the largest bombs and the deadliest
contents Of them.
AirsAorror Is Predicted.
Wemay certainly.rec that within
three or four hours Of a declaration
Of war between France and England
huge bombs of high explosive. or pol
son gas. or incendiary stuff will have
got through the always Intellectual
barrage and be livening up the streets
Of Paris and London. Because 1t Is
the popularity Of air warfare that
here are no FRONTS and no effectual
parties. You bomb the other fellow
almost anywhere and similarly he
bombs you.
Many people seem to think that
america and Japan arc too far from
each other for this sort Of thing. but
I believe there n nothing lnsurmOunt-
able in these distances for an mir Of
Il vim be {. question of hosrs In
stead of days, that Is all, before the
babies of Tokyo and San Francisco
;et their whiffs Of the last thing
The job will be . little moro elab-
rate: IL will involve getting the AIR
material to convenient distance from
the desired objective by means Of q
,ubmersiblo cruiser; that IL all the dif-
ference.
All the fleets In the world could not
prevent . properly prepared Japan
from bouncing upon some unprotected
point of the California or Mexican
coast, setting up temporary air base
there, and getting to work. over .
RADIUS Of thousand miles. She might
even keep an air base at sea. And IL
would be equally easy for America to
do likewise to Japan.
The citizen Of Los Angeles. as he
blew to pieces. or coughed up his
lungs and choked to death, or was
crushed under the falling. burning
buildings, could at least console him.
self by the thought that America was
so PREPARED that his fellow man
in Tokyo was certainly getting it
worse. and that he blew to pieces on
he soundest American lines unencum-
)ered by any permanent alliances with
my Old World powers.
An air war between America and
apan need not be confined to the
'acific slope. 1 do not see anything
prevent Japan. II she wanted TO do
o. with the aid Of q venial neutral or
%, getting around into the Atlantic to
lew York and testing the stability of