Floodgates Opened

Sending his Pentagon reorganization legislation to Congress last week, President Eisenhower opened the floodgates on the great debate and waited. He did not have long to wait for a Niagara from the man who has long rained over military matters in Congress: Georgia's seasoned, sharp-tongued Democrat Carl Vinson, 74, member of the House for 43 years, chairman of the old House Naval Affairs Committee for 16 years, and unchallenged czar of the Armed Services Committee for seven of the eleven years of its life.

Some folks dare to call Vinson "Uncle Carl," and sometimes "The Swamp Fox," after the Revolution's great strategist, Francis Marion. In committee hearings Uncle Carl's slow drawl and subtle digs ("Wha'd'ya say yer name wuz, Gen'ral?") can shake stars and tangle braid. Though he has long been a stalwart defender of a big Navy, knowledgeable Carl Vinson is also a wise, powerful force for a strong military establishment. But Ike's plan was too much for Uncle Carl.

Open Invitation. "If ever there was an open invitation to the concept of the 'man on horseback,' this proposal is it," he intoned. The President, he declared, was trying to set up "a Prussian-type supreme command" that would eliminate military responsibilities of the service Secretaries, grant too great flexibility to the Defense Secretary in spending congressional appropriations--in effect, shut out Congress' watchful eye. "I know of no concept more dangerous."

Unity, Unity, Unity. The President was ready for the debate with his first public speech in behalf of his program. Before the American Society of Newspaper Editors in Washington, Ike knocked down each of Carl Vinson's objections without mentioning the objector. "The purpose is clear," he said. "It is safety with solvency. The country is entitled to both." His double-barreled theme: "billions for defense; not one cent for heedless waste" and "unity--unity in strategic planning, unity in military command, unity in our fighting forces in combat units."

Most criticism of the program, predicted Ike, will come not from the military but from "outside sources," obviously meaning the Navy League and service-oriented industries. "It will be said that the changes . . . will merge our traditional forces into a single armed service. This is not so ... I repeat--there will be:

"No single Chief of Staff;

"No Prussian staff;

"No czar;

"No $40 billion blank check;

"No swallowing up of the traditional services;

"No undermining of the constitutional powers of Congress."

Better Squeeze. Ike did sidestep one aspect of the plan that has a riptide potential. The fiscal flexibility that he wants for the Defense Secretary, enabling the Secretary to shift as much as 10% of the total defense budget within and among the services, is one of Congressman Vinson's chief targets. The President carefully avoided mentioning this in his legislative proposal, instead announced that he will ask for such flexibility on behalf of the Defense Secretary in his next budget (fiscal 1960). He is confident that his program has a better chance of squeezing through a Congress that has proprietary sentiments about purse strings.

Nonetheless, the President has a long upstream battle ahead, and with such opponents as The Swamp Fox to contend with, Ike's strategists are going to have to think--or swim for the high ground.

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