Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-03-02

and Defense Secretary. The mill
tary services should be removed
from the channel of command,
enabling the service chiefs to con-
centrate on management and
logistics; the chiefs, the report
proposed. would continue to serve
on the joint chiefs but only as adj
visers. The Secretary of Defense
should have direct authority over
all research. development and pro-
curement.
Academic Issue Now
Actually, the proposed creation
of single chief of staff command
at this session of Congress is
largely academic.
The single-chief plan is OPP
posed by powerful forces, includ-
ing Senators Knowland, Repub-
lican of California: Bridges, Re-
publican of New Hampshire; Rus
sell, Democrat of Georgia, and
johnson. Senator Russell is
chairman of the full Senate
Armed Forces Committee.
It is also opposed by Represent
alive Carl Vinson, Democrat Of
Georgia, chairman of the House
Armed Services Committee.
The joint chiefs are charged by
law, under the present Setup, with
formulating defense plans. The
jos is composed of the operating
heads of the three services, plus
the commandant of the Marine
Corps, who votes whenever Marine
matters are considered.
The staff has a non-voting
chairman Except in cases of tie)
who is the principal military
adviser to the Secretary of De-
tense. While he technically has no
voice on the Staff'S final decisions,
the chairman is a powerful man
because he is the one who carries
those decisions to the Secretary.
AS such, he is in position to rec
ommend acceptance or rejection.
Each of the services has been
embroiled in an almost constant
battle over roles and missions in
this missile and hydrogen war
head age. Each is seeking the
most important strategic role.
Inter-service rivalry, however.
does not have a monopoly on
defense ailments. Over the past
10 years the bureaucracy within
the Office of the Secretary of De-
tense has grown steadily.
When James v. Forrestal be-
came the first Defense Secretary
in 1947 he proposed to operate
with a total staff of about 100,
including three special assistants.
Now there are % civilian secre-
taries, deputy secretaries and
assistant secretaries and $500
employees in the Office of the
Defense Secretary.
This, of course, does not in
clude the $4,000 people in and
out of uniform who are con-
cerned with unified" operations
and are responsible to the Secre-
tary.
Host Of No Men
On major defense matters
ones which involve national policy
all % secretaries have the pow
er to say mo" to proposals from
below. Only one man has the
power to say yes" That is the
Secretary of Defense.
There are, additionally, 279
permanent advisory committees
in the Pentagon, 140 of them
headed by Defense Department
personnel and 139 by military
men from the three services.
There were many loud COM
plants to the johnson commit
tee that decisions were almost
impossible to obtain. from the
Pentagon.
In all the testimony, however.
only one man touched on a point
which has long been discussed
privately in Washington in and
out of Congress and the Penta-
gon.
He was Gen. James H. Doolit-
tie. He pointed out that, In time,
missiles will be able to carry n.y.
drogen warheads and, in event
of attack, this Nation must have
a system of speedy decision.
"Some day." he said, "a rapid,
proper decision will be the diff
terence between surviving and not
surviving it may be that we
are headed toward a single service
and 0ne uniform "