Evening star., 1950-07-16
Are Half Measures Sufficient?
Lavish Expenditure of War Material Held
Necessary for U. S. to Win in Korea
By Constantine Brown

War no longer is around the
corner. IT is here. This is the
consensus of those who are close
to the top military men in Wash
ington.
Military men in their speeches
written by ghost writers. and
cleared with their civilian chiefs
have not been able to sound the
alarm. Only very recently, since
the roar of guns in faraway
Korea replaced the sweet words
Of diplomats. have their estimates
Of the world situation become
better known and shown to be
correct.
Our civilian leaders have in
dulged ip a guessing contest, with
permanent peace" as the under
lying motif. And their guesses
have been far off the mark
President Truman was guessing
or thinking wishfully-when only
a few weeks ago he assured the
American people with all the
prestige of his high Office that
the prospects for permanent world
peace were better than at any
time since 1945.
Similarly. Defense Secretary
johnson, an able man in that
sensitive cabinet position, voiced
the views of his political colleagues
when he showed so little concern
over a possible outbreak of hostil-
tiles and assured the American
people. who are far ahead of the
administration in their fear of
Russia's aims, that if the Russians
were to strike at 4 am. we would
be ready to counterattack within
an hour.
Dodged the Facts
The question, "What with?" was
never clearly answered. It could
not be because the Defense Sec
retary knew better than any one
else that even the 48 air groups
which We were building were only
on paper, that the 10 skeleton
division which comprised our
ground forces were strewn over
thousands Of miles from Tokyo to
Berlin and that the bulk Of the
Navy's striking power-the air.
craft carriers-were in moth balls.
A hysterical though under
standable, desire for peace, to-
gether with the belief among our
diplomats that the United Ma
tions had become the cure-all for
all kinds of distress, prompted us
to s. stand totally unprepared
against the enemies Of this coun-
try and our civilization.
For a long time we refused to
accept the fact that Russia was
determined to destroy us if such
an opportunity came her way. We
appeased the Oriental. dictators in
the Kremlin in the hope that by
surrendering millions of peoples
to their thirst for power we could
avoid another calamity. This was
true from the very day the Rus
slams shouted for help when Hit
Ter was at the gates of Lenin-
grad and Moscow.
Recriminations over past poll
cieS are Of no use today, except
that they serve to prevent a repe-
tition of similar mistakes and
lead to the adoption of more
realistic policies.
The firm belief that we are at
the beginning of a general war is
prompted by the Korean situation.
If we had been able, it is said, to
stem the advance of the Reds
within a short time after they
started their aggression-which
was aimed at the United States
rather than the feeble Korean re-
public-the chances are that Rus
Sia would not create similar situ-
ations in other parts Of the world
where we have deep commitments.
We have not been able, however,
to stop the Reds and it would be
a miracle if our troops are able to
do more than check the North
Korean drive. The best troops in