Evening star., 1945-11-15
Writer Suggests FBl
Join in Defense Merger
Says Hoover Testimony Opens
Fantastic Possibilities
BY David Laurence


By David Laurence
J. Edgar Hoover, head Of the FBI,
may have inadvertently given Congress
the other day the answer to q burn
ing question-whetfer or not to create
single department of national de-
fense. Mr.. Hoover told two members
Of the House of Representatives that
his organization knew 10 days before
Pearl Harbor that Japan was about to
attack us and that every FBI man in
the Pacific area was "alerted" for the
occasion.
Here Is sensational piece OF infor-
nation, but Mr.. Hoover himself prob
ably doesn't know how really sensa-
tional it is. For 1t opens at once fan
tastic possibilities for those who are
whimsically engaged in reconstructing
the Government departments SO that
there shall never again be Pearl
Harbor.
Thus Gen. Doolittle, for instance, the
other day scof1ed at "co-ordinated ac-
ton" of the Army Navy Joint Board
Committee meeting" such as he said
we had until the first Sunday in De-
cember, 1941," and the whole burden
of his testimony was that single de-
partment of defense would have saved
us from the Pearl Harbor attack.
So maybe what Mr.. Hoover tells us
now makes 1t plausible to think, not
merely of the Army, Navy and Air
Forces, but also to include the Depart
ment of Justice in the consolidation
to-be.
Essential of Preparation.
Plainly the FBI has shown that hav-
ing advance intelligence is as essential
a part of nations preparation for
war as to have B-29s, and evidently
the Army and Navy intelligence serv-
ices either were lax or they couldn't
get their information promptly into
the hands of Admiral Stark or Gen.
Marshall so that our forces at Hawaii
could be on the alert.
Maybe If the Department Of Justice
had been in the new department of de-
fense, with one man at its head, J. Ed
gar Hoover could have gotten by the
outer stats and penetrated into the
Office Of the secretary of defense and
things would have been different. Ger
tainly, from the standpoint of economy,
there is much to be said for including
the Department of Justice in the new
merger Indeed, the principal argu.
ments for a single department to in.
clude the Army and Navy seem to be
that it would be a big economy in
money and personnel and eliminate
overlapping.
Well, the FBI has done swell Job Of
detective work during the war and to
pursue the line of reasoning of the ad.
vocates of single department of de-
fense, there is no need for separate
Army and Navy intelligence services So
long as there is good FBI organiza-
tion and man like Edgar Hoover to
head it up.
But the merger would have other ad-
vantages in saving money. Altogether
too much of the funds and time of both
the Army and Navy are taken up with
court-martial trials and disciplinary
proceedings The time of officers that
should be given to other duty is occu-
| pied with prosecuting and defending and
| trying cases which could just as well
be handled by the array Of lawyers con-
nected with the Department of Justice
Indeed, some members of Congress have
recently been critical of the court
martial verdicts and sentences by the
Army and Navy, so there might even be
an advantage in using civilian at
| torneys.
| State Department, Too?
| But would merger of the War and
Navy department and the Department
of Justice be sufficient? Clearly the
State Department belongs in the group
ing. If, for example, the Secretary Of
State had told Gen. Marshall and Ad-
miral Stark all that he was doing prior
to Pearl Harbor, maybe they would have
been expecting the attack and would
have ordered the proper alert at Pearl
| Harbor and the defense might have
been better. If the same man who was
talking to Japan had had to arrange
for fighting Japan, maybe things would
have been different-at least so runs
the speculation.
So, again following the logic of some
of the witnesses who are testifying be-
fore congressional committees in favor
of single department of defense, there
should be one department consolidat-
ing the departments of War, Navy,
Justice and State. This could certainly
save a lot of money and might satisfy
the craving for bigness and mergers
which seems to have seized the military
folks. It's long name to be sure but,
again in spirit Of economy and in
keeping with the American fondness
for initials. it could At into the headlines
very easily as the "WNJSsS' and thus
perhaps big problem would be solved
and the country could get on with re-
conversion.