Evening star., 1945-11-29
Unified Defense Talk
DecIorq Premature
Generals Are Thinking in Terms
of Land Wr, Says Writer
By Dath Laurence

of Land Wr, Says Writer
By Dath Laurence
Secretary Forfstals expressed fear
that proposals II 4 single department
OF national detnse would bring in
security and dfuption instead of q
unified service isbased on belief that
the United Statf Navy should not be
punished for whit It has accomplished
in beating Japd, but should retain
what 1t has had before. namely equal
voice at the PrSdent's cabinet table.
The Navy Secretary didn't mince
words in characeriaing the plan Of
the Army and thu Amy Air Forces to
absorb the Navy! Aasmuch as the
Army would split tntotwo major units
one being the Army Ground Forces
and the other the Army Air Forces
there would be two stries against the
Navy before any appropriations were
discussed.
Both Gen. Marshall an, Gen. Arnold
have made no bones abouthe fact that
they want to see their two,ervices con-
troll the armament budget. Their ideas.
they believe, about how te funds of
the United States shall b spent for
armament are better thar the views
which the Navy alone Nigh have with
respect to It's own appropriations.
Already the Navy is uner attack
not only with respect to its ,wn plans
for defense but its strategyin equip
ment. The reason the Navytears abb
sorption Is that Gen. Doolitt, one Of
the principal spokesmen for he single
department plan, has already indicated
that he wants to see naval airsaft car
riers scrapped. 1t is no secrethat the
Army wants to have the rightto pass
on the Nays expenditures, ad with
two-to-one vote in the department OF
defense 1t is easy to see hos much
weight the Navy views would cry in
rebuttal.
Sarcastic Comment.
In recent testimony before th SEN
ate Military Affairs Committe, Gen.
Doolittle said the "battleship ha, been
obsolescent for 20 years and esolete
for TO-" He added that the scraft
carrier had reached the peak 4 Its
usefulness and was now goins into
"obsolescence. He continued:
THE carrier has two attribses-
firstly 1t can move about, and seondly
it can be sunk. When we get ai,raft
with sufficient range we won't iced
carriers"
This kind Of derogation of the avy
is not confined to Gen. Doolittle. It's
the way some of the generals inthe
Army and Army Air Forces talk in ri
vate about the Navy. Small woner
that the Navy men are so much aroued
by what they consider to be plotto
absorb the Navy and deprive it of he
right to have civilian Secretaryof
its own, whereas the Army and ir
Forces would dominate the single e
partment If it is created.
Gen. Doolittles comments are INST
unfortunate, especially in their sarcastc
reference to the sinking Of the carrier.
Would the war in the Pacific be won t.
q
carriers? Would the Army Air Forces
have had chance to strike at Japm
if the Navy carriers hadn't cleared tie
Pacific for landings by amphibiou
forces so that the bases were available
for the B-29s? Were the battleships se
obsolete that they could have been dis.
pensed with ut the invasion of Nor
mandy and at the landings which per-
mitted Gen. Macarthur and the Ma
rines to climb back to the Philippines
and to Japan itself?
These views held by the Army All
apprehension that differences between
the armed services are more pronounced
than they have ever been before. Ex.
trenists like Gen. Doolittle have de.
stroyed whatever hope there was fol
unifying the services. The lines oi
would be well advised to drop the sub.
| ject for year or so till the whole matt
ter can be examined effectively, ani
certainly until the facts are fully IN
vestigated as to what happened durirt
the war in the Pacific. |
Land War Thinking.
Virtually all the proponents of te
single department plan are thinkinghn
terms Of the European war, which tas
land war. Nothing has happeted
since vi day to abolish the 5000 n1lei
| Of Pacific Ocean, the control Of Which
is vital to the defense of California
Oregon and Washington. The Army
could not protect Pearl Harbor with its
air forces and 1t couldn't protect Oki-
nawa. The naval aircraft carriers hac
to supply the aviators to support the
ground operations for nearly three
months at Okinawa. And yet Gen. Doo-
little, with the full approval and en-.
thusiastic Endorsement Of Secretary oi
War Patterson, has opened an attach
on the entire naval air arm.
Until the truth about how the wa
was fought and won in the Pacific i
fully disclosed it seems premature Il
talk about the success of unified op
erations in Washington. Until, also
the true responsibility for what hap.
pened in washington before the Pear
Harbor attack Is disclosed it seems pre-
mature to indorse any single depart
ment Of defense, especially since tn
chief reason why the Army and Nav.
officers claim they were unprepared q
Pearl Harbor was because, they say
the State Department didn't tell then
in advance all that it knew.
A unification Of State, War and Navy
with three Secretaries specifically give
responsibilities for national securit,
might be q better alternative than