Evening star., 1949-04-28
Navy Officers Morale
Declared Impaired by
Johnson Gag Order
Apology Yet to Be Mode
For Diseourtesy Shown
On Cofrier Problem
By David Laurence

>" S~"
On Carrier Problem
By David Laurence
The morale of the officers of
the United States Navy and Ma
rine Corps has been seriously i'm
paired.
Naval aviators, hitherto looking
forward to a career Of continuing
progress in the whole field of avi-
alton, are discouraged.
High-ranking officers of the
Marine Corps are worried.
Officers Of the Navy itself are
so deeply concerned that they
fear to talk to civilians lest the
gag" order result in a penalty
for them.
On the whole, never in the
memory of this correspondent has
any armed service received such
q devastating blow as that ad-
ministered by President Truman
and Secretary of Defense john
son when the whole chronological
program of the Navy was. in ef-
fxct. frustrated by the decision
to permit the Navy to develop
only those weapons which the
Army and the Air Force allow
1t to develop.
Repercussions on Every Side.
The resignation Of the Secre-
tary Of the Navy, John L. Sui
liyan. has had repercussions on
every side-in the armed services
aud on Capitol Hill. What Mr..
Sullivan said confirmed the state
ment In these dispatches on Mon
day to the effect that neither the
Secretary of the Navy nor Admiral
Denfeld. chief of naval operations.
vas consulted when Secretary
johnson abruptly ordered con-
struction stopped on the super
carrier.
1t now is generally admitted
that Mr.. johnson blundered in
his method of handling so deli
cate a problem. But nothing has
been done to repair the damage.
No apology for the discourtesy
shown to the chief Of naval op-
erations has been made. All
through the Navy it will be Won
dered whether its top officer has
anything to say any more in
Government councils and whether,
in order to get along with the
Secretary Of Defense, he must be
a yes" man and abandon all
that he learned about naval
weapons in World War II.
Congress has among its many
members those who want to see
the whole matter investigated. If
ever there was an occasion for
congressional investigation. 1t is
today when an iron curtain has
been drawn and the public has
been prevented from knowing
why the Navy was so insistent on
building a uper-carrier-even
sacrificing other parts of its con-
struction program to get the car
rier built.
But what is even more import
ant Is that Congress has been
told. in effect, that authorizations
and even appropriations do not
mean that the will OF, the national
legislature is to be obeyed.
Thus a 70-eroup Air Force has
been authorized by Congress, but
apparently by a stroke of the pen
of the Secretary Of Defense that
program can be abandoned over
night. . ..,....,e
Tradition Swept Aside.
It all adds up to the fact that
In the passion for centralizing
power in the hands of one man.
the Secretary of Defense-the
traditional reliance on the collab-
Grafton of all armed services has
been swept aside.
It never was intended that a
civilian Secretary of Defense
should tell military or naval men
what weapons they should de-
velop. 1t never was intended that
the chief of naval operations
should be figurehead or rub
ber stamp" who would not be con-
suited when a matter so vital to
his service was under considera-
tion.'
The incident illustrates the
danger of putting complete power
in one cabinet officer. President
Truman is supposed to be COM
mander- in chief of the Army and
Navy. But he doesn't perform
those duties except in a per-
functory way. He had twice ap-
proved the building of the super
carrier. Nothing has happened in
the interim to change the basic
philosophy behind the carrier pro-
gram. It is being said that Mr..
Truman is putty in the hands Of
his own cabinet officers and that
he doesn't have the time or the in
clination to 60 deeply into import
ant matters. That may account
for the reversal of his own deci-
sion. He, too. didn't ask any ad-
vice from the top men. in the
Navy.
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