Evening star., 1948-04-16

ton will not be needed.
The Air Force has played skill
full game. It's leader, Secretary
Symington, has shrewdly taken adj
vantage of political situation on
Capitol Hill. Despite the much
talked-of untfication of the armed
services and the need for one
spokesman on appropriations, Mr..
Symington simply ran around the
end and outflanked his superior,
Secretary of Defense Forrestal.
Thus, the so-called unification
plan goes out the window and the
Air Force-the original champion Of
the Ideas the first to break 1t
down.
Political Dilemma Created.
None of this pleases either the
Navy or the Regular Army, but they
are caught in political dilemma
from which neither President Tru-
man nor Secretary Forrestal seems
able to extricate them. AS a mat
ter of fact, there is powerful argyll
ment for a 70-group air force. 1t
comes from those who think the
best way to frighten Russia into
submission Is to authorize the
spending of money for airplanes.
But this is only q superficial view
Of what must happen. The forma-
ton of 70-group air force increases
the need for more ships and tankers
to carry gasoline and supplies to
far-of bases. Likewise, it means in
creased manpower to capture and
hold strategic bases. The wisest
words that have been spoken in a
long time on military strategy are
credited to two members of the
United States Joint Chiefs Of Staff.
FIRST, here is what Gen. Carl Spaatz,
chief of the Air Force, said in an
interview with the United Press at
Beloit. Wise:
I'VE have not vet reached the
point where we can carry out sus-
tanned bornbings at great distances,
and I don't know when we will.
People who think they will be able
to sit back in the next war and let
military aircraft do the Job are all
wet. They had better square up
their thinking with facts"
BradIeys Remarks Noted.
And this came from, Gen. Omar
Bradley, Chief Of Staff OF the Army,
in testimony before the House
Armed Services Committee:
''The only certain and safe guar
antee against enemy air attack Is
to seize and hold the bases from
which his aircraft would fly. If we,
as a result of weakness in land or
naval strength, permit any enemy
power to seize such bases as Alaska,
Greenland, Iceland, Spitzbergen or
the Azores, then we shall have laid
our industrial and population CEN
ters open to air attack. All the air
forces and antiaircraft artilleries OF
the world could not prevent it. Only
troops actually occupying such
bases could give us protection.
Those troops are the Army"
The Navy chiefs would say much
the same thing in holding that, to
transport men and supplies, sub
marines Of the enemy must be de-
stroyed and air attacks on conveys
must be prevented by an adequate
Navy.
So the administration, through
Secretary of Defense Forrestal,
worked out a plan for balanced"
Army, Navy and Air Force combi-
nation. It involved either SIS air
groups for the Air Force fully
manned or 10 air groups partly
manned. The emphasis on the TO
caught the imagination Of the
House and Secretary Symington
pushed his advantage. although 1t
unbalsnces the plan worked out so
carefully by the Joint Chiefs OF
Staff at their recent meeting In
Kew West. Fla.
Either the political pressures OF
one armed service group as against
another is going to run our ma
tional defense or the executive
branch OF the Government and the
Joint Chiefs of Staff are going to
do it. The public will watch with
interest this amazing bit Of byplay
in Congress whereby the draft or
universal military training are sac
rificed to Zeal for appropriations
for planes. In the end, the other
services will have to be built up to
balance the 7O-group Air Force
plan. This soon will mean many
more billions for the armament
budget.
(Reproduction Rishts Reseryed)