Evening star., 1950-10-23
Needless Cesualsies
In Korea Numerous,
CoIumnist Declares
Investigation Likely
To Follow Election
Campaign, He Declares
BY David Lawrence

When the elections are over and
Congress reconvenes, there may
be an investigation of the debacle
in Korea.
For while the United Nations
forces have been victorious ano
there has been brilliant maneu-
vering by all three of our armed
services, the fact remains that
more than $4,000 casualties have
been incurred-many of them
needlessly.
Among the politicians anc
some of the apologists for the ad-
ministration, especially during a
political campaign, the emphasis
is placed on the victories and
there is deliberate tendency to
try to make the people forget
what happened before June Is
when the Korean war broke out
Louis Johnson has been made
the goat for the mistakes that led
up to the debacle in Korea, but he
toOh Vic ddNiCC Va CllC OOlllt SIilC1S
OF Staff whose two-to-one vote
sent virtually the entire American
Navy into mothballs and grounded
the Marines 5000 miles away
from the trouble areas of the Far
East.
Fleet Still Deficient.
The Navy's fleet in being was
scuttled and despite the hurry-up
moves to get a semblance of a
fleet into commission for the Ko-
lean affair, the fact remains today
that. as a consequence of require
ments in Korea, the United States
has no fighting fleet in the Allan
tic and a mere fragment of a fleet
in the Mediterranean.
Who was responsible for scut-
Ting the fleet in being? This is
vital question for the future
because the reasons why two
members of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff voted to advise Secretary
johnson to curtail these services
have never been revealed. This
does not involve military secrets
certainly not now. 1t involves
blunders in judgment that should
not be hushed up.
The mothers and fathers and
the. families of the thousands
killed in Korea and of the many
more thousands missing and prob
ably dead and of the many thou
sands condemned to spend the
rest of their lives as invalids get
small comfort out of the tendency
to gloss over mistakes. They are
entitled to the assurance that. the
sacrifices were not in vain and
that the lessons taught by the
blunders prior to June Is have
been taken to heart and that pun
ishment will be meted out to those
responsible for the blunders.
Entitled to Assurance.
Specifically the American people
are entitled to the assurance that
the men who made America S
military policy and made such a
mess of it before June 25 are no
longer in a position now to in
fluence military policy.
The biggest mistake of all those
made before the Korean war
broke out was made by those
Army and Air Force spokesmen
who spread the falsehood that
the Navy or the Marine Corps
opposed unif1cation. On the basis
of that outcry the Navy was
punished and the air wings of
the Marine Corps almost entirely
abolished.
The Navy always has and al
ways will favor integration. That's
exactly what the So-called unfit
cation law provides and what
Chairman Vinson of the House
Armed Services Committee and a
unanimous committee behind him
favors. Integration means letting
each service retain its Specializa-
tions and functions as outlined
in the law subject only to over
all budget limitations. "Unifica-
ton" thus far has meant allow
ing the heads of two armed serv-
ices to decide what appropria-
tions the third shall have.
The Air Force as an independ-
ent service has come to stay. It's
main function is strategic bomb
ing. 1t no longer has to justify
its right to independence. But
the Korean war shows plainly
that the Air Force blundered in
failing to set up enough units
to work constantly with ground
forces. The Army once had its
own tactical units.
Question Is: Why So Late?
If within the independent Air
Force sizable tactical air COM
mand-to work flexibly with
ground troop divisions-is to be
set up as planned now, the ques-
tion then arises why this wasn't
done before Korea and who was
responsible for failing to provide
the ground troops with the tao
tical air units they require, espe-
cially for night flying and vary
ing weather conditions. It is a
superficial argument to say, as
Gen. Stratemeyer of the Air