Evening star., 1950-11-20
Bradley Talk Called
Case Of Confession
Being Good for Soul
Much of Onus Placed
On jos Chuirmun
For U. S. Unreudiness
By David Laurence

By David Laurence
Confession is good for the souls
OF men-including public officials
and that's why the amazing
statement just made by Gen.
Omar Bradley. chairman Of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, is about the
most important revelation that
has come officially since 1945
about our military policy.
The exact words of the general
in a public speech were these:
"It is bruising and shocking
fact that when we Americans
were committed in Korea, we were
left without an adequate margin
of military strength with which
to face an enemy at any other
specific point. Certainly we were
left without the strength to meet
general attack. In the military
sense, the free world was left
without adequate reserves except
for the atomic bomb"
There's the "bruising and
shocking" story which raises the
question of what happened to $50
billion for defense in five years.
Not Simply Johnson.
1t is not sufficient to say Louis
johnson. ousted Secretary of De-
4 fense, was to blame. Who made
the military program and who
failed to tell the country, if need
be, that America and the free
world were virtually defenseless? !?
Under the law this was the re-
sponsibility of the Joint Chiefs Of
Staff consisting for much of the
time in the last five years Of Gen.
Bradley as Chief of Staff of the
Army, Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg as
Chief of Staff of the Air Force,
and Admiral Louis Denfeld as
Chief of Naval Operations.
These three men had the task
OF planning military strategy and
of rendering military advice to the
President and the Secretary of
Defense.
Time after time in the privacy
OF Joint Chiefs of Staff meetings,
Admiral Denfeld protested against
the concept that few Air Force
groups and the atom bomb could
do the job of protecting our inter-
ests across the globe. He pleaded
that the Navy with its powerful
aircraft carriers should not be put
IN mothballs but posed at stra-
tegic locations overseas. The Ma
rine Corps commandant begged
that the Marines-our amphibious
force with special skills on the
ground and in the air-should not
be curtailed. But to no avail. The
Navy and Marine Corps were
voted down repeatedly by Gems
Bradley and Vandenberg. The
budget was cut by a committee in
the Defense Department headed
by Gen. McNarney of the All
Force.
This correspondent first called
attention to these serious cuts in
the summer of 1949-a year be-
fore the Korean outbreak.
Marines Case Ridiculed.
Then came the famous House
investigation in October, 1949.
Gen. Bradley ridiculed the case of
the Marines, predicting that there
wouldn't be another amphibious
landing. The admirals were ac-
cused Of being fancy Dams" and
tne argument about the weakness
IN our main strategic concept was
Iost IN mixture of denunciations
and epithets all of which resulted
in the peremptory removal of Ad-
mlral Denfeld by Secretary of the
Navy Matthews.
The Chief of Naval Operations.
who came in seven months before
korea-Admiral Sherman-is a
lar better leader in many respects
than his predecessor and perhaps
the most experienced all-around
man the Joint Chiefs could have
acquired. But his vote was not
enough. The basic strategy wasn't
changed by the Joint Chiefs until
Korea demonstrated what the
blunders in planning really were
Now. as a belated confession.
too, Gen. Vandenberg has Or
dered that a separate tactical air
command be set up. This is ex-
actly what the famous B-29 con-
troversy revealed, namely that the
AR Force was too preoccupied
with strategic bombing to provide
alrmen properly trained and with
the right planes to give close SUD-
port to ground troops, as the Ma
rines had always done
Why a Demonstration?
Why was the Korean demonstra-
tlon OF our weakness needed? Why
were men who spent their lives
studying strategy, maps and war
experience so blind that it took a
Korean war with nearly $4,000
casualties to make them see the
truth they should have learned
IN the class rooms of their war COL
leges or in joint staff conferences
About $500 Americans were killed
In action and about $500 reported
missing in Korea and it seems
certain that with the massacres
OF prisoners many of the MISSING
will never be found.
What a tragic climax the Brad
ley speech is to a debate that
never should have been necessary
President Truman still retains in
office the men who helped to keen
the United States from being ad-
equately prepared. The excuse
that there wasn't money enough
to have a different overall strate-
gic plan isn't convincing. The
expenditure of $50 billion in five
years calls for further investiea-
ton by Congress. The House com.
mittee did a splendid job, but
Senator Tydings who dominated