Evening star., 1949-09-19
Arms und Defense PIunnina

Arms und Defense Planning
The twelve nations adhering to the
North Atlantic Pact have agreed upon an
organizational structure for planning the
defense Of the Western world.
Twelve men, composing the North At
lantic Council created by Article of the
urday, and, the spade work having already
been done, agreed within an hour upon
the outlines of defense structure.
At the top there will be a.Defense Com
nittee, made up Of the defense chiefs of
the participating pations, and Military
Committee, composed of the chiefs of staff
or their representatives. To see to it that
the program Of the Military Committee
goes forward, there also was created a
central or standing group within the COM
mittee, composed of the United States,
Britain and France.
These are the top-level bodies. Below
them will be five regional groups charged
with planning the defense of their partic-
ular areas, subject to coordination Of
planning by the Military Committee or its
standing committee. In the absence Of
an imminent war threat, there will be no
overall chief or commander.
This, in short, is the defense planning
setup, and it probably is as good as any
that could have been worked out at this
stage. It is important to remember, how
ever, that planning, of itself, does not
ifx,
planning can insure that the available
instruments for defense will be used to
best advantage if war should come, but
without arms and trained men the finest
planning will be no better than a paper
defense
It is because of this that the eyes of the
world will be turned on the Senate this
week as it prepares to act on the $1,314,-
100000 foreign military assistance bill.
The critics of this measure have at
tackled along many lines. They have said
that it would weaken our own military
establishment. They have said that the
cost is too great. They have contended
that it would be more apt to provoke war
than prevent war. In large part, the joint
report of the Senate Foreign Relations and
Armed Services Committees, just made
public, is an effective answer to these
claims.
With respect to the claim that the mill
tary aid program will impair the combat
effectiveness Of our own armed services,
the joint report makes fiat denial. The
two committees, the report says, have re-
ceived in secret session confidential data
covering the types of assistance to be fur
nished and are satisfied that our own
military effectiveness will not suffer. For
obvious reasons, the nature of this in
formation cannot be made public. But
the joint reports firm statement on the
point should be reassuring to the Senate
and the country.
OF greater Importance is the reports
treatment of the contention that the arms
program tends to incite war. This is an
argument which appeals to some people,
and it is not possible to demonstrate con-
clusively that it is unsound. Yet the facts
are persuasive.
The aid being sent western Europe Is
defensive in character; it could not pos
sibly provide the strength 20 undertake
aggression. Russia, with 100000 men
under arms, has been steadily improving
her military forces. The Soviet military
budget for 1949 was increased by 10 per
cent over that for 1948. These and other
Soviet measures, in the face of the swift
rehabilitation by the United States and
the Western European nations of their
own armed forces, speak for themselves.
We may be sure that the Russians, re-
gardless of what we do, will continue to
strengthen their military establishment.
And we may be equally sure that reason
ably adequate defense in Western Europe,
instead of provoking war, will be more
likely to discourage Soviet aggression.
Finally there is the question of cost. Can
we afford the arms program? The best
answer to that, as stated by General Mar
shall, is that we cannot afford not to
afford it. The Atlantic Pact, for practical
purposes, obligates us to 60 to war if
necessary to prevent Soviet conquest Of
Europe. We have just agreed to take an
active part in planning the defense of
Europe Our aim in all OF this IS to pre-
vent war from starting, and the billion
dollars more or less to be spent on arms
for Europe is premium payment on
peace insurance policy. In paying it we
will be risking much less than by doing
nothing or doing too little.