Evening star., 1951-05-18
WestGermans 10 View
Us. Power on Parade
On Armed Forces Day
By Goult MocGowon


EUROPEAN COMMAND HEAD
QUARTERS, May 1S.-Armed
Forces Day tomorrow will bring
out the biggest demonstration
of American power in Europe
that Germans have seen since the
war ended.
Spies, Communists and local
populations, doubtful of Western
determination to defend the Rhine
and Danube, will have their first
opportunity to gauge the military
bearing, discipline and equipment
of United States marching men
supported by squadrons of aerial
fighters and bombers.
Such parades have been Sched-
uled in score of military posts
from Austria, along the Alps,
through Bavaria, Wuerttemberg-
Baden and Hesse to Berlin. Mill
tary pageantry is the only display
that brings confidence to middle
Europe which, unlike American or
Britain, lacks blue water to stand
between it and aggression from
the East. Boundary lines are as
fragile as those between the
Dakotas.
No Secret About Plans.
No secret has been made about
athe plans for these parades.
Armed forces broadcasts announc-
ing them have been heard far be-
hind the Iron Curtain. Spies can
slip across the frontiers to see
them without difficulty. The
amount of information they will
pick up will be little more than is
known already. The troops will be
out to impress spectators, the way
Moscow's military pageants are
put on to impress foreign observ-
ers.
Hitherto in Germany, such par
ents have been held mostly behind
military enclosures. We came to
Germany to suppress militarism,
not to f1aunt it. Cynical Germans
taunted the CTS with "Hitlerism"
on the rare occasion when a pub
lie display of force was necessary.
Today, most West Germans are
secretly glad to see the army on
parade despite the Communist
slogan, "Ohne Mich" scrawled
across the walls. This count me
out" propaganda against Atlantic
defense plans is waning since the
Federal Republic has been ad-
mitted to full membership in the
Strasbourg House of Europe.
Armed Forces Day parades are in
tended to show the public that
the West has power with which
1t is worth while to be counted
in"
Men and women in Germany
know soldier when they see one
Our troops have frequently not
measured up to German standards
Of swagger and cockiness on the
march. When the combat veterans
went home, there was long pc
riod when the occupation army
was mostly composed Of raw re-
cruits.
ANOV SSSOAA0 w 4NUACs
We got in the cold war during
that period. Now the new United
States Army over here has i'm
pressed Gen. Dwight D. Eisen-
hover as second to none in smart
ness and preparedness. Gen. Clar-
ence r. Huebner, who recently re-
tired, was responsible for training
it-and he did it well enough to
impress even eX-Wehrmacht gen.
erals. This without introducing
the goose stepl
Officers and GIS are proud of
themselves and happy in their role
as guardians of Western Europe.
They know that tomorrow may
turn Europe into another Korea,
but complaints about conditions,
once rampant in the occupation
armies. have reached an all time
low.
American tourists visiting Ger
many in increasing numbers may
return home with lots of ideas on
what's wrong with our European
political policy but they are never
besieged with GIs anxious to un-
load burden of woes on their
shoulders. Armed Forces Day pa
rades may be reported to Stain
as lacking quantity but there'll
be plenty Of quality and morale.