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

Streamlining and reducing the
and establishing effective military
command.
Mr.. .McElroy and his advisers
have before them these sugges-
tions:>
. Creation Of general staff with
the chairman acting as overall
commander empowered to assign
the roles and missions Of each
service.
. Use of the present Joint chiefs
of stan simply as an advisory
group for the Secretary of De.
tense, and creation of a separate
combat and supply command
under the Secretary.
. Creation of a single service
with a single commander.
. Preservation of the status quo.
. Reduction of the maze of 279
functioning committees and %
secretaries in the Pentagon to
some workable size in order to
speed vital decisions and define
responsibility.
. Delegation Of additional purse
string controk to the Secretary of
Defense instead Of having Con-
gress set aside the money by
services.
Bills BefoHe Senate
In the Senate now are two
measures, both by Republicans,
which would give the Secretary
more control over funds for the
services.
Senator Sherman Cooper. Re-
publican Of Kentucky, also would
downgrade the secretaries of the
three services to the role Of I'M
dersecretaries to the Secretary of
Defense.
Senator Prescott Bush, Repub-
lican of Connecticut, has intro
duced a bill to establish a unified
command with the chairman of
the joint chiefs serving as the
chief strategic planner.
The whole Juror was touched
OF by the launching of RusSias
first earth satellite October 4. In
the United States great debate
developed as to why the Soviets
were ahead, and it led to an in
vestigation of the missile program
by the Senate Armed Services
Subcommittee headed by Senator
Lyndon Johnson, Democrat of
Texas.
Even while the subcommittee
hearings were under way, Presi-
dent Eisenhower. told Congress in
his State-of-the- Union address
January @:
THE first need is to assure our
selves that military organization
facilitates rather than binders the
functioning of the military estab-
hshment in maintaining the Sc
curity of the Nation.
THE advent of revolutionary
new weapons (rnissiles) which
technology has produced does not
mt into any existing service pat
tern. They cut across all services
the uncertainties resulting
from such situation, and the
jurisdictional disputes attending
upon it, tend to bewilder and con-
fuse the public.
AIormine' Report
Just four days before the Pres
ident'S message, a study of the
United States defense posture was
released by the Rockefeller Broth
erS Fund. The study, conducted
outside Government, found de-
lenses in an alarming state.
Among other things, the Rookie
Teller report asserted:
4 Roles and missions assigned
- to the services have become
competitive because they are tout
Of accord with both weapons
technology and the principal mill
tary threats to our national
safety"
> The present Joint Chief of
10 Staff setup precludes "devel-
opment of a comprehensive and
coherent strategic doctrine"
The Secretary of Defense
~ can't play his full part in
the initiation and development of
high military policy" because he's
too busy trying to arbitrate and
control inter-service disputes"
The report recommended that
the joint chiefs be organized on
a unified basis and placed under
control of the chairman. who
should be designated principal
military adviser to the President