Evening star., 1945-08-20
A Time for New THINKING

At IllS press COulcTetlCes CIle OLQer
day General Arnold had many
highly significant things to say, but
none more significant than that "the
past is a dead horse" With the ad-
vent of jet propulsion, giant rockets,
radar and that most stupendous of
all mans works of genius - the
atomic bomb-every former concept
and practice of war and peace must
now be either scrapped entirely or
radically modified.
1t was only yesterday that we
lived in the twentieth century. To-
day, as If some trick of time had
suddenly engulfed us with the re-
mote future. it may be said that we
are living-in terms of the new age
opening up-hundreds of years ahead
Of the calendar we are still using. AS
far as our thinking goes. this is a
literal fact. Ideas that were once
valid are valid no longer. Economi-
cally, socially. politically. militarily
and morally. the world of tomorrow
which is already here-demands
profound changes in the mental
outlook of human beings every
where, both as individuals and as
members of single race
What all these changes should be,
or will be, no one can say at this
time, but General Arnold, the chief
of our Army Air Forces, has given us
at least broad indication of how
military science is likely to evolve.
The days of sea power, air power
and land power, as we know them
now, are definitely numbered. The
Super Fortress, for example, is al
ready obsolete, made so by an Amer
fcan plane-in the making-with a
range perhaps three times as great.
And in sense this new giant is
obsolete, too, even before we see it
in the sky. For here are some of the
things that are probable to the
point, almost, of inevitability":: (D
pilotless aircraft travelling at super
sonic speeds and revolutionizing all
present forms of aerial combat; (2)
guided atomic missiles incomparably
more deadly than the deadly Nazi
rocket bomb, so controlled that
exact hits can be made on targets
OF mile square or less, at any part
OF the world, from any part of the
world" and CD defensive weapon
automatically seeking out the super
sonic bombers or guided atomic mis-
siles and destroying them in the
stratosphere or ionosphere.
In General Arnold's words, "None
OF these things is visionary or
merely possible" They are so nearly
within reach that the Buck Rogers
conception of war is right on the
worlds threshhold" "a war ode
structive beyond the widest night
mares of the Imagination" His
counsel to America is in keeping
with the terrible grimness of the
prospect: We must labor desperately
to maintain peace, and since the
armies, navies and air forces of to-
day are well on their way to becom-
ing obsolete. since all our mighty
battleships, carriers, bombers, tanks,
field guns and similar paraphernalia
OF battle are largely pieces of Junk
in terms Of the new age. we must
keep constantly advancing in the
field of scientific research and de-
velopment. And, finally, it now seems
imperative to unity all branches of
our military establishment - land,
sea and air-under single depart
ment OF national defense.
The past is most certainly a dead
horse. General Arnold's call for
new thinking applies not only to the
principles and methods of warfare
but to every phase of the worlds
way OF living. The fact cannot be
emphasized too strongly or too
often: We have got to match our
fantastic knowledge with commen-
surate wisdom. If men and nations
do not do that, they will keep on
learning things until they COM
pletely destroy themselves and the
earth hangs dead in space.
(&n%o n>--,IL