Evening star., 1955-05-02
By JOHN A. GILES

air fleet out Of the sky by 1857.
But they indicate that jet
fighters. backed up by Nike and
anti-aircraft artillery battalions.
can come nowhere near that kill
percentage now.
This was disclosed today In
the release of cautious and heav-
lily censored closed-door testi-
mony before the House Appro-
priations Committee.
Representative Davis. Repub-
lican. Of Wisconsin. asked "how
do you compare your (present)
capability with what you hope to
be able to accomplish say in
1857. when you feel that you will
pretty well have developed the
continental defense program?"
II personally feel we have to
have an operation we'll in excess
Of 80 per cent kill effectiveness"
replied Gen. Benjamin w. Child
law, commander chief Of the
Continental Air Defense Com
mand.
Lists Variables
But the general went on to ex-
plain that a lot of variables had
to be taken into consideration in
such calculations. He listed
some. of these as the number of
take-off bases the enemy would
use, the weather, the number of
routes, altitude, speed, and SO on.
Therefore. he was cautious In
estimating present capabilities.
When pressed as to the results of
the latest training exercise. he
put his answer of the record.
The general said that under
the most ideal conditions with
sufficient advance warning II
would like to think we could de-
stroy them ALL"
At another point, Gen. Child
law was asked by Representative
Deane. Democrat, of North Caro-.
lima: How many H-bombs can
we absorb and still be in position
to mobilize?" He replied: Frank
ly, we do not have the answer"
Asks Mixes Dependability
1t. Gen. S. r. Mickelsen, COM
mander of all Army artillery, was
asked by Representative Mahon,
Democrat, of Texas, about the
dependability Of the Nike guided
missile.
His reply:
II will give an unqualified as
surance that Nike can be relied
upon and that the United
States has in the Nike a weapon
of great potential and great de-
fensive ability capable Of op-
Grating against any known air.
craft or any aircraft projected
into the future of the next five
years or So"
Representative Scrivner, Re-
publican, Of Kansas, asked Ad-
miral Radford If he had heard
anyone in the military" recon-
mend use of American troops
on the China mainland.
mo. I have not replied the
chairman Of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff. THAT does not neces-
sarily mean that If we get into
war with China. Well, we
have had troops on the
mainland in the past"
Wilson Testifies tsa
Defense Secretary Wilson re-
po-cd that while the Chinese
Communist army had shown
some improvement since the Ko-
rean war truce this improve
ment can hardly be described
as tremendous"
Representative Skies. Demo-
crat, Of Florida. elected the
opinion from Admiral Radford
that the cutback in Army
strength would not make any
difference in the outcome Of a
Korean-type war. He recalled
the Army had only 500,0 troops
at the start of that conflict.
Mr.. Wilson said he was not
critical Of those who assailed the
reduction because changes are
always a little hard to accept"
"One Of my greatest problems
is that so many people worship
the gods of things as they are"
he added.
But there were evidences that
the members were not entirely
convinced. Mr.. Mahon said Ad-
miral Radford'S statement that
I'VE are better prepared than we
ever have been before and we
are improving" was inadequate.
'Pygmy- Giant" Comparison
"a pygmy about to attack q
giant might be better prepared
than he ever was before and he
might be improving every day.
and he still might be hopelessly
out of balance with respect to
the adversary" he declared.
The admiral maintained the
administrations plan was "ade-
quate for the threat"
Later he submitted q written
statement saying II feel as of
today that we are better pre-
pared to meet an emergency
than we ever have been during
my service in the armed forces.
I'VE have a flexible combina-
ton Of land, sea and air forces
with a wide variety of weapons
and capabilities, including nu-
clear. which in my opinion Is