Evening star., 1950-09-20
By Martin S. Hoyden


power as the answer to all of the
Nations military needs are a
source of worry to the Nations
top air commander.
In an interview today. Gen. Hoyt
s. Vandenberg. Air Force Chief of
Staff, pointed with pride" to a
lob well done in the skies over
Korea and then pricked a series
of gas balloons raised by a .-out
air power enthusiasts.
Air power, says Gen. Vanden-
berg, can never win war by itself.
Air power cannot now, and
never will be able to guarantee
that enemy planes may not de-
liver some atom bombs to Amer
lean cities.
Finally, despite the current Ko-
rean success, Gen. Vandenberg
says American land, sea and air
forces cannot be expected to play
fire brigade" everywhere and, by
themselves, guarantee the safety
of every land on the globe.
Ticks OFF Fundamentals
AS he answered critics who have
found fault with the country's
military performance in Korea,
the 51-year- old four-star general
ticked off the fundamentals of
an air war lesson which, he said,
81 wish both our friends and our
hostile critics would understand"
First, there is the theory that
victory will automatically flow to
the Nation with the biggest Air
Force.
1T is not" he emphasizes, "the
Air Forces job to win wars alone.
And no one in authority in the
Air Force has ever said it was or
could be. By authority I mean
the Secretary and Chief of Staff.
who are the only two individuals
who can speak for the Air Force
on such a matter"
The Air Force ''is one part of an
air -land-sea team on which no
one-third is more important than
the other two," Gen. Vandenberg
said.
Three Step Time Table.
With no reference to a recent,
and much criticized, boast of
former Defense Secretary Johnson
as to the Air Forces capability of
striking back quickly at an enemy
attacker, Gen Vanderberg has his
own three-step time table of Air
Force defense obligations.
"Since we will never start a
war;" he says, "our first problem
is to have defense of interceptor
planes ready to go in the air at
once, If enemy planes start an
atomic attack early on any given
morning. We know that, just as
Germany at the peak of its air
power was unable to force the
turn back short of the target of
a single one of our bomber strikes,
so we cannot expect to prevent all
enemy planes from getting
through, but we will stop some"
Next, he says, is the Air Force
obligation to hit back at an
enemy.
Perhaps" he says, ''late on the
day of the assumed morning at
tack, or maybe the next day, we
must hit long range at the force
attacking us. That strike-back
power, combined with local de-
tense at home, constitutes air Sc
curity' and is designed to make
any potential enemy hesitate over
the costs of an attack upon U.S."
Thirdly, says the general, comes
the matter of tactical air power,
the branch in which some critics
say America is lacking.
Tactical Air" Support.
Tactical air." he says, "is to
support troops. Up until now we
have not had large army to sup
port and for that reason have
concentrated on the first two es-
sentials. In the near future that
situation may be changed" III
National air defenses are still
below the safety level Gen. Van
denberg seeks.
"At present." he said, 1--WE
scarcely have 48 air groups, let
alone the SO that is talked of. We
have just gotten the money to
start building a radar net around
the country. That net is an es-
sential for air defense but it will
not, it should be remembered, pe
any sort of mosquito bar that will
make it impossible for any enemy
plane at all to reach an Amer
lean target"
Gen. Vandenberg says both ad-
vocates and critics of air power
"all too often do not understand
what they are talking about"
Without air superiority" he
says, "our ground troops could
never have held the Korean
beachhead, could never have built
up an invasion force, and could
never have made the Inchon
landing. That statement alone is
all the credit the Air Force de-