Evening star., 1950-08-03
Blame Put on Johnson
For DebacIe in Korea
0bscures Realities
Congress Leaders Held
Primarily Responsible
For Unpreporedness
Bv David Laurence

DIV DUptU LU> CUCo
There is palpable effort to
make Secretary Of Defense Louis
johnson the scapegoat for Amer
ica's unpreparedness today.
That's the easy, superficial,
careless way. It tends to obscure
realities. For the truth is the
Congress of the United States is
primarily responsible for the de-
bacle in Korea.
The Constitution imposes on
Congress these duties:
ITO raise and support armies.
ITO provide and maintain a
Navy.
ITO make rules for the gov
ernment and regulation of the
land and naval forces"
If America is unprepared to-
day, the blame cannot be placed
merely on just one or two in
dividualS in the executive branch
of the Recommendations the
President or the Secretary OF
Defense. They have response
bility, of course, but If either or
both of these officials was wrong
in taking the advice of those who
drew up a military concept OF
strategy based only on strategic
bombing war in Europe, then 1t
was the duty of the legislative
branch of the Government to
check those policies and make
final judgment.
What Did Congress Do?
What did Congress do during
the controversy last year concern
ing reductions in the Navy, or
the withholding of funds for the
Air Force or the need of the
Army for tanks and tactical avia-
ton? The House Armed Services
Committee, led by Representative
Carl Vinson of Georgia, Demo-
crat, did a faithful job Of check
ing on what the executive agen-
cieS were doing. The House COM
mittee did more-it conducted
public hearings and listened to
witnesses who cried out against a
concept of strategy which took
into account only one kind of
warfare.
What did the Senate do? Here
was the biggest fall down. Here
is where the real checking should
have been done. because the Sen
ate is recognized as the more
powerful and influential body of
the two. The Senate, however,
depended on it's Armed Services
Committee. This is headed by
Senator Millard Tydings Of Mary
land, Democrat, who studiously
avoided any serious checkup or
investigation. With his colleagues,
he repeatedly steered away from
the controversy over preparedness
which ragged in the House COM
mittee last autumn. He inter-
vened only to coerce the House
Armed Services Committee and
military men generally by threat
ening, in effect, to hold up the
legislation providing for military
pay increase unless the Navy and
the Army officers knuckled under
and accepted the Tydings "uni-
fication" plan. Thus far this |
plan has served only to weaken |
the defense structure.
All during the time that expert
witnesses were telling the House
Armed Services Committee that
the United States lacked tactical
aviation units for the army, lacked
tanks and lacked naval aviation,
the Senate Armed Services Com
mittee was looking the other way
trying to avoid what it called
controversial subject. At one time
Chairman Tydings said he didn't
think the Senate should inquire
into the controversy raised over
the matter of naval aviation and
Marine Corps strength and B-36s,
because this was being done by
the House-as if the Senate could
thus abdicate its responsibility to
investigate vital matters of ma
tional defense policy.
System Needs Change.
Before the "unification" propa-
ganda sold the country the idea
that the next war could be won in
a few days by air power alone. the
Congress had a separate commit
tee for the Army and separate
committee for the Navy in each
house. Now each has only one
armed services committee. Hence
it was more important than ever
that during 1949 and 1850 the
Senate Armed Services Committee
should not have shirked its task.
This same committee has just
appointed several subcommittee
to watch the defense effort. Moth
ing apparently is being done to
investigate the past failures of the
committee itself. Nothing is be-
ing done by the Congress to find
out why it's system of checking on
defense matters broke down. Nor
is anything being done to establish
q method of censuring those COM
mittee members who neglected
their duty to the people Of the
United States in 1949 when the
die was cast to forget tanks and
tactical aviation and to cut naval
aviation.
The system in Congress needs to
be changed. There should be a
joint committee of both houses
and equal representation of both
political parties. so that such
things as Senator Tydings' clever
whitewash of Secretary Of Navy
Matthews when he punished Ad-
miral Denfeld for telling the
American people the truth about
their defenses will not be ignored
by the Senate itself.
The present system is such that
L L.