Evening star., 1942-10-23
Urges War Cabinet
For Efficiency
Military Commentator Insists
'Cleor-Cut Organization
Is Needed to Win Victory
By Maj. George Fielding Eliot.

hNSSSSS w w
By Maj. George Fielding Eliot.
The high command of our national war
effort must be reorganized, simplified,
streamlined. At present there is alto
gether too much confusion, uncertainty,
overlapping. division of authority, waste
motion, lost time and just plain ordinary
backbiting
These things are bad enough in peace.
In war they are a danger to the State,
to all of us, to our future as a people
and to our future as individuals They
constitute an advantage gratuitously
offered to the enemy. They must be
eliminated
Better and simpler and more direct
organizat ton is the only way. This war,
as far as America Is concerned, is being
run by one man. That man Is the Pres
ident Of the United States. He is our
commander in chief. He is good war
leader. He knows how to inspire others.
He has mind attuned to the decisions
OF strategy. He can get along with our
Allies. But he cannot do all these things
and also administer 80 separate Govern
ment departments. bureaus and boards
that have at present direct access to him.
He needs war cabinet. It's purposes
would be: Cd To reduce from an i'm
possible 30 to practicable 10 the num-
Der OF department heads with whom he
must deal directly; ca to put every war
agency under one or the other of these
men; 80 to organize these department
neads into smoothly co-ordinated
working team with the collective re-
sponslbillty of assisting, advising and
informing the commander in chief.
We would then have a straight and
clear method of procedure, as follows:
Cd The war cabinet advises and in
forms the President
CD The President decides.
% The members of the war cabinet,
IN their capacities as heads of the ex-
ecutlve departments, carry out the deci-
sions in the formu}at ton of which they
have already participated.
This plan preserves the proper rela-
tionship between responsibility for PLAN
ming and responsibility for the execution
OF plans
point to be emphasized is the neces-
slty for daily meetings The war cabinet
must junction as team, and not merely
as group of individuals. When one
member OF it has case to make. with
which some OF his associates may dis
agree, he must make it in the presence
OF the others, submitting it to their
scrutiny and objections In no other wav
can the President reach sound and fair
decisions. II all major policy decisions
are so taken, no vital element will be
overlooked and all sides will at least have
the satisfaction Of stating their causes.
OF course, when the President has heard
all sides and taken his decision he has
right to expect loyal execution of that
decision by all members of the war cab
met, and each member will know the
next day, and the next, and every day he
must account for his stewardship to the
President and in the presence of his COL
leagues This is teamwork, and from it
is born the team spirit.
Another point to be remarked upon is
the importance of having for the war
cabinet capable and we'll organized
secretariat. Its duties would be to organ
lie the work of the war cabinet, to pre-
pare its agenda, circulate its papers and
assure the attendance at each days ses-
sion OF the military and technical ad-
ViserS needed for the agenda of that day.
One OF the most important functions of
the secretariat would be to prepare and
keep up to date running estimate OF
the situation" with military, political
and economic sections. There is now no
agency which has the necessary contacts
and authority to perform this vital task.
The Vice President might we'll be the
vice chairman of the war cabinet (the
President, of course, being the chair
man. He might serve the President as
civilian chief of staff, or executive
ot1cer, co-ordinating the efforts of the
various departments and dealing with
the majority of the purely administra-
tive decisions. Mr.. Wallace Is an excel
lent organizer and administrator; when
he headed it, the Department of Agricul-
ture was the best-run department in
Washington, and his Board of Economic
Warfare is today shining example to
many other Government agencies. More
over the Vice President is our national
insurance policy, and the safety of the
Nation may depend on his being kept
closely in touch with all that is happen
Ing and all that is planned
The war cabinet as above described is
not, of course, military body. 1t Is not
substitute for the joint chiefs of staff.
1t is, in effect, a national general staff
for total war, of which military effort is
only part. Military plans should con-
tinue to be handled by the joint chiefs
of staff admiral Leahy as chief of staff
to the President; Admiral King as COM
mander in chief of the fleet; Gen. Mar
shall as chief of staff of the Army, and
1t. Gen. Arnold as commander of the
Army Air Forces. These officers, in ad-
dition to their individual responsibilities,
would have joint responsibility for
advising the President and the war cab
met on military matters. The attend
ance of some or all OF these officers at
the daily meetings of the war cabinet
would almost always be required; and it
should be emphasized that it would be
their duty to speak out clearly even
though their views might run contrary
to those of their civilian superiors, the
Secretaries of War and the Navy.
But in the last analysis, unity of COM
mand, so essential to victory in total war,
is civilian function. It cannot be
given over to the military, because there
are so many non military forces to be
harnessed to q simple chariot Milita ru