Evening star., 1942-02-06

Writer Argues Thot Study
Is Necessary to Keep Up
With Progress Of Art Of War
To the Editor Of The Star:
Mark Twain's advice for distinguishing
good from poison mushrooms was, Eat
them. II you die, they're poison" And
we are doing just that when we find an
Army or Navy oficer incompetent only
after his mistakes have cost us several
thousand lives. 1t is obviously better
business to find out in some cheaper
way.
Two hundred years ago war was very
simple, but 1t was also very dangerous.
You did not need brains or imagination
to figure out what the enemy might do.
You could see him, right out in the
open, getting ready to do it. You had to
stand up and face his fire. You had to
hold your ranks against his charge. Your
wounded comrades fell screaming at
your feet. and you had to ignore them,
and make your subordinates do the
same.
Army traditions of strict discipline and
of respect for rank were developed for
that kind of fighting. They tended to
produce blind courage and blind obedi-
ence on the battlefield And as a COM
pensation they permitted an oficer to
become lust sort Of gigolo between
wars" He had certain amount of drill
and paper work, but the rest Of his life
was given to pleasure.
Modern war is altogether different.
There is so much to know about 1t that
1t is impossible for any one man to know
more than a small part. Hence the
commander who succeeds in modern war
is the one who encourages his subordi-
mates to have ideas of their own, and to
express them, rather than the one who
insists on blind obedience. 1t requires
more initiative. But 1t also requires less
courage, since a man is supposed to take
cover and the wounded are less con-
spicuous.
Gen. Macarthur is typical of the mod
ern type of ofncer. The brilliance he is
displaying in his Bataan campaign is not
his alone. His subordinates and his
predecessors have made suggestions.
Sons OF head hunters have taught the
white men tricks Of jungle fighting. And
Gen. Macarthur has welded all these
ideas into a unified whole. the same as
q great corporation executive does. AS
q result, the Japanese have not been
able to do anything that the Americans
had failed to- anticipate. They have
sprung no surprises. For everything they
have done an answer had been planned.
And these answers have worked as ex-
pected, within the limits set by avail
able materiel.
The ofiicer who proves incompetent"
in modern war is usually the one whose
ideas Of war are still those Of a century
or two ago. He is brave enough. but he
lacks Imagination. And you do not have
to let the enemy spring a surprise on
him to find that out He shows 1t every
day in his dealings with his subordinates.
and in his attitude toward military liter
ature. He resents criticism and inter-
ference, and he gives orders under all
circumstances, even to q subordinate
whom he knows to have knowledge Of
some speciality exceeding his own.
The American Army supports six serv-
ice journals--Infantry Journal, Cavalry
Journal, Field Artillery Journal. Coast
Artillery Journal. Army Ordnance and
Military Engineer. And all the tricks
that 50 far have been used in war have
been subjects Of discussion In these
magazines for at least 10 years.
Onicers who are competent to COM
mand In modern war have read one or
more of these journals regularly and can
remember of1-hand a number of articles
in them. Officers who are likely to be
surprised as Pearl Harbor was surprised
rather generally have ignored them.
Hence fair test of an officers compe-
tence can be made by taking the files OF
tn. service journal he reads and asking
him one or more questions based on
them. These questions should be so
worded as to show merely that he has
read the principal articles and under
stood them at the time. Even the best
officers probably could answer only q
small proportion Of the questions in such
an examination. But there would be
marked difference between the officer
who has spent his spare time with the
service journals and the officer who has
spent his spare time with the ladies.
And the oficer who ranks high on in
tellectual knowledge of modern war is
likely, also, to have taken pains toSmake
himself fit for 1t in other respects.
MAJ. JAMES r. RANDOLPH.
Bridgeport, Conn.