Evening star., 1945-10-22
ForrestaI Urges
DefenseCounciI,
cksMerger
War, Stote and Navy
Secretaries Would
Serve With President
BY ROBERT BRUsKIN.

"
today voiced opposition to uni
fication of the Army and Navy
and declared the immediate
integration necessary is that of
the War, Navy and State De-
partments."
He told the Senate Military At
fairs Committee conducting hear
ings on a merger bill which has the
approval of the Army and Air Force
that the Navy favors:
l. A National Security Council
with the President as chairman
Council members will include the
Secretaries of War, Navy and State
Departments, and a fourth men,
ber to be the chairman of Ma
tional Security Resources Board.
2. Continuation of the Joint
Chiefs OF Stats and the delineation
of their duties and responsibilities
by statute. Under the joint chiefs
would be Military Munitions
Board with civilian chairman ap-
pointed by the President.
3. The National Security Re-
sources Board would be charged
with translating military and naval
plans into industrial and civilian
mobilization.
4. A central intelligence agency
lin order that those responsible fol
our national security policy may
have complete up-to-date and ac-
curate intelligence, properly an
alyzed and made available in usable
form"
Would Guarantee Unity.
Mr.. Forrestal said this sort of ar
organization would create a me.
chanism within the Government
which would guarantee that this
Nation shall be able to act as a
unit in terms of its diplomacy, its
military policy, its use of scientific
knowledge and finally in its moral
and political leadership of the
world--a leadership that shall rest
on moral force first and on physical
force so long as we shall need it."
He said he did not agree Oh estab.
lishment of a separate air force CO.
equal with the War and Navy De-
partments, but urged every effor,
should be made to prevent the ail
force from returning to its prewaI
status.
He called on Congress to setur
a board made up of ''some of the
first citizens of the country In
studying the problem Of national
security This would be similar
to the Morrow board of 20 years
ago which studied American civil
and air policy.
He told the committee he was
in thorough agreement with the
Army and Air Forces in the neces-
sity for unification of commands ir
the field but added this could be
achieved by action of the join
chiefs of staffs.
Against Concentration of Power.
The present Army Navy merger
bill lis unsound because it con.
centrates power in the hands of one
secretary beyond the capacity oi
any one man to use that power ano
certainly beyond his capacity to OBJ
tain and digest the knowledge on
which its use could be based" he
said
The head of the proposed Depart
ment of National Defense woulo
never have more. than superficial
knowledge of the department ano
would be entirely in the hands oi
his military advisors" he declared
The proposed merger would hand.
leap congressional committees ir
their responsibility for examining
the composition of the armed forces
he said. A major reason for the
effectiveness of the various part'
of our armed forces lies in the fact
that there are in the Congress sep.
parate committees composed oi
men whose study of contact with
each separate part have quite init.
mate knowledge of the needs OF thai
part or service" he continued.
Sees No Economy.
Countering the claims of tn,
Army and the Air Forces that con
solidation meant efficiency ant
economy, Mr.. Forrestal declared i
had been his experience in business
that smaller units could be operated
more economically and that size i
no guarantee of efficiency"
Unification, he said, would meal
the loss of healthy competition.
IT am, and I always have been
firmly of the belief that unity o
operational command in the field o
action is necessary, but the strategi
decisions on which war is conducted
/ believe will come far better from
a group of men, rejecting varying
experiences, than they will from an,
one intuitive genius" he empha
sized. "The Germans had that il
Hitler, and I do not think it is |