So Big

From the mists of Washington indecision, the shape and scope of a defense mechanism to serve the nation began to emerge. The shape was still blurred at the edges, but the size of the projected machine was unmistakable and staggering in its vastness. It would make the U.S. a nation under arms, with more men watching the ramparts than in the perilous days of 1939-41.

The Navy was the first to show its blueprint to Congress. Last week it unrolled a colossus-sized plan to keep 1,079 ships (half as many again as the combined navies of Britain, France, Russia and Italy), 30% of them in service, 10% in ready reserve and 60% in a "mothball fleet." It wanted dozens of bases fanning out from the U.S. coasts into both oceans. It wanted 500,000 enlisted men and 58,000 officers (including 8,000 officers, 100,000 men in the Marine Corps). The cost was as eye-straining as the size: $5 billion next year; $3.5 billion a year thereafter.

Minutemen. The Army also had some tremendous figures: for the National Guard, it proposed to keep 574,900 officers & men trained for the ground forces (double the prewar figure) and 47,600 for the Air Forces (a ninefold increase). The minutemen of the atomic age would man 22 infantry and two armored divisions, under an umbrella of 84 interceptor and observation squadrons.

The Army was still not sure how many men it wanted in the regular ground forces, but it was thinking in terms of 500,000. The Air Forces knew they wanted 419,000. Guardsmen aside, this would make a total of about 1,500,000 regulars in the three services, and an annual cost of perhaps $10 billion--as much as the entire federal budget in the New Deal's most spendthrift days. (The Navy alone wanted -"to spend as much as an average Coolidge or Hoover budget.)

Such a military juggernaut might be a fine instrument for Realpolitik, but was it American--was it politically feasible? One of the country's greatest military men had privately said, while the plans were adrawing, that they were ridiculous--Congress would never agree to drain off so huge a proportion of the nation's young manhood, or to foot the bills even if the men all volunteered.

Political Minutiae. If the plan was not realistic, what was it? Clearly, each of the three services was trying to make itself as big and important as possible against the day when Congress might merge them. The Navy had a clear duty and responsibility for overseas bases and the ships to base there--but beyond that, the Navy was trying to make itself too big a mouse for the Army-Air Force cat to swallow if the dreaded merger should come.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.