Evening star., 1953-06-04
Stort-Stop Air Force

General Vandenberg's protest against the
cut in Air Force funds may seem to approach
the point of INSTRUMENTATION. But If he was
right, If the latest retreat in our air power
build-up threatens the security of the United
States, he was fully justified in speaking out
against it. For the essential point of all this
confused controversy is simply this: 1t will do
us little good to save a few billions of dollars
in 1854 if the result is to make 1t possible for
the Russians to destroy us two, three or four
years hence.
The Chief Of the Air Force told the Senate
Appropriations Subcommittee that the Joint
Chiefs of Staff had warned Defense Secretary
Wilson in March that any reduction in the Air
Force 143-wing program would increase the
risk to our national security beyond the dictates
of national prudence" Nevertheless, S. billion
was Topped off the Air Force budget and Mr..
Wilson is talking in terms of an interim" goal
of 100 wings. General Vandenberg expressed
the personal opinion-an opinion apparently
shared by General Twining, the Presidents own
choice as Air Force Chief-that 143 wings "is
the minimum force which can assure the ability
of this Nation to resist successfully an all-out
Communist attack"
On the other side of this picture are the
views of the administration Mr. Wilson says
money And General Eisenhower, who ought to
know what he is talking about, has said that
he has studied the defense budget and is salts
fled that no unwarranted risks with our ma
tional security are being taken.
The net result is confusion raised to the
nth degree. Some things, however, are clear
enough. One is that the budget cut is bound
to slow down our air power build-up. We may
get more planes next year, but in the long run
we certainly will get fewer planes than we could
have produced This is what General Vanden-
berg decries as start-and-stop planning. Another
clear fact is that we have been through this
before. Five years ago we were trimming the
fat" from the defense budget. Nothing essential
to national security was to be sacrificed, but
the Air Force, with the other arms, was to be
cut back. Then, out of the blue, came the
Korean war-a war in which we found ourselves
with an Air Force which, in terms of modern
planes, was numerically overwhelmed by the
enemy. The aerial combat story in Korea has
been good, but 1t has also been due to our
pilot superiority. Certainly we have never had
enough modern Sabre jets, and if we had been
fighting the Russians instead of the Chinese it
might have been sadly different story.
This all comes down to the real question:
Are we going to build an Air Force under the
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the Russian air force? If so, we are wasting our
money. But this question can only be answered
if we know or if we have trustworthy estimates
concerning the actual and potential strength of
the Russians General Vandenberg touched on
this when he said that Russia today has more
modern jet fighters than we have and enough
long-range bombers to attack this country in
a sudden al-out atomic effort But this Is only
part of theSstory. The fact that really counts Is
whether the Russians are outproducing us now
and whether, If we cut back, they will out
produce us by an even greater margin in the
future. We have, at least, an official estimate
in this respect Why cannot the American
people whose lives. after all, are at stake be
given the best possible honest answer?