The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-11-06
TODAY and TOMORROW
by WALTER LIPPMANN

the true function OF an army.
In carrying out the agreement,
which the President has reaffirm-
ed, the Administration will need to
reconsider radically the whole &C.
cupation system. It might well be-
gin by asking itself whether there
is any prospect Of our being able
and willing to continue very much
longer to keep several hundred
thousand ordinary troops on gar.
rison duty in Germany. The an
swer is that there is no prospect.
The kind of army we have in Ger
many was not recruited, was not
trained, and is inherently untitled
for garrison duty. 1t cannot be
kept there very much longer; it
cannot be effective while it is
there if its only interest is to come
home. Long before it democratizes
the Germans, it will demoralize it.
self.
This was foreseen and foretold
long ago by many among us. The
War Department, which was so
brilliantly ingenious and resource
full in developing co-ordinated
specialized task forces in the war
has shown no imagination about
developing specialized task forces
to carry out its mission in Ger
many. It has just left a combat
army composed of young civilians
to sit around in Germany waiting
for a ship to take them home.
Surely the men who planned the
landing in Normandy ought to be
able to draw up a plan for a police
force which is recruited from men
who are prepared to stay in Eu-
rope, and paid well for staying,
which is trained specially for its
mission, which is small and COM
pact enough to be manageable,
and to have its own esprit de corps,
which is equipped with all the
planes, armored vehicles, devices
and weapons to move ir-esistibly
and swiftly anywhere in Germany.
AS an anonymous member of the
R. A. F., writing in this month S
"Harper's" magazine, puts it, Ito
apply our force correctly in Ger
many :. it is not in the least
necessary to have a bored G. /.
wandering around the streets OF
Frankfurt
With such different type of
armed force, a different kind of
control Of Germany would natu.
rally follow. The control would be
based on the principle, not Of gov
erning Germany, but Of compel
ing the Germans to bear that I'm.
attractive responsibility, Of telling
them what they may not do within
Germany, what they must deliver
out OF Germany, what they may
receive into Germany, and then OF
arresting, trying, and Furnishing
individual Germans who violate
the code.
If we are wise, we shall make it
o411plS dIlQ IlOC al Ella DOT q Le
code. Having disarmed the Ger.
mans and demobilized them and
destroyed or removed their chief
arsenals Of war, we should forbid
them to train men or to make
weapons. There is no use trying
to define weapons; that will only
invite ingenious evasion. We car
easily send a commission to Ger.
many which can tell quite quickly
If some new gadget is or is not a
weapon.
The rules for German industry
should also be simple. It should
not be difficult to say what may
not be produced at all, and what
in broad quotas must be done,
what may be done, with the coal,
the steel, the electric power, ETC.,
etc, authorized for production.
Probably it will be advisable to
internationalize the coal produc-
ton Of the Ruhr not, let US hope,
by stationing four armies in the
Ruhr Valley, bueby organizing a