Evening star., 1949-07-03
In Defense of the Brass

Bernard M Baruch's address to the In
dustrial College of the Armed Forces should
be required reading for all those shallow
people who still persist in looking down
their noses at the Brass Hats" and who
never miss chance to say something nasty
about the so-called military mind"
What is Brass Hat? What is mill
tary mind? How do generals or admlrals
and their immediate subordinateS differ
from other American citizens? Why should
they be sneered at and sniped at? Are
they any weaker in the head or any more
bumbling, than the rest of us? Are they
less able? Are they group apart? Do
they lack vision? Are they menace to our
liberties? Do they deserve, in short, the
disdain and suspicion so often directed at
them by their persistent critics?
The ions have been well answered
by Mr.. uch. The simple truth is that
it is just downright stupid to suppose that
''there exists some deep fundamental
cleavage between civilians and military
in American life" The good citizenship OF
the "brass" and the braid" is not excelled,
and frequently is not matched, by people
in mufti Nor can it be said-even when
it comes to nonmilitary matters-that top
ranking members of our armed forces lack
ability. On the contrary, this Nation has
been most fortunate in having been able to
draw upon the talents and genius OF its
generals and admirals to carry out such
unwarlike tasks as governing the occupa-
tion zones filling key ambaSsadorial posts,
running huge enterprises like the Veterans
Administrat tion and playing role of true
greatness as Secretary of State.
Douglas Macarthur, Lucius Clay Walter
Bedell Smith, Alan G. Kirk, Omar Bradley,
Dwight Eisenhower, George Catlett Mar
shall-these are but few of the distin-
guished commanders whose services in
civilian and semicivilian fields confirm Mr..
Baruch's point that there is no basis for
the accusation that our military leaders
think exclusively in terms of war" Ac-
tually, they are practitioners of the arts
of peace as WELL and as Mr.. Baruch has
said, they have as group always thought
of the whole national interest, which is
more than can be said for some of their
critics"-the not-so-fine Americans who
often are found in the forefront of pres
sure groups fighting for narrow sectional
causes.
AS for possible menace to our liberties,
Mr.. Baruch has made the pointed sugges-
ton that it stems not from the military
but from reckless civilian politicians and
rabble-rousers. In reality, the role Of the
much-maligned brass and braid" has
always been that of the protector OF our
free way of life-a role in which their past
warnings have been laughed off too fire.
quently by too many people until suddenly,
with the outbreak of war, they have found
themselves called upon to work miracles.
And the marvel is, despite the browbeating
treatment given them in peacetinle, that
they have never failed to lead us to victory.
Why is it, then, that people still snipe at
the military? In Mr.. Baruch's opinion, the
explanation may be that such people
represent kind OF childish psychological
throwback to primitive times when 1t was
not uncommon to beat or kill courier
bearing bad news. Through no fault Of