Will & Weaponry

U.S. preparations for a possible military showdown in Europe picked up momentum. At midweek the Pentagon ordered increased training and a standby for 148,000 Army Reservists and National Guardsmen. At week's end the Defense Department announced that 40,000 U.S. troops will move immediately to Western Europe to reinforce the 250,000 men already deployed there in five combat-ready infantry and armored divisions.

In other moves, more armored personnel carriers were ordered overseas to provide U.S. infantrymen with necessary mobility. The 6,500-man U.S. garrison in West Berlin received first shipments of fast-firing (750 rounds a minute) M-14 rifles to replace obsolescent Garands and Browning automatic rifles. Ready to head overseas were 1,800 paratroopers and 72 supersonic F-100 fighters, all scheduled to participate in a NATO air-sea-ground defense maneuver dubbed "Operation Checkmate." At Checkmate's close the paratroops will return home--but the planes probably will remain in Europe.

A Visible Display. All such moves were essentially meant to establish what has become known in Administration circles as "credibility"--a visible display of will and weaponry that will convince the Soviet Union that the U.S. really means business in its determination to defend against aggressions on freedom. Both publicly and privately. President Kennedy avowed U.S. determination. Addressing the Association of the U.S. Army, Assistant Defense Secretary Paul Nitze, a key Pentagon strategist, said flatly that any Communist attempt to cut off Western air access to Berlin would be the "straw that breaks the camel's back." Were this to happen, said Nitze, war would not necessarily be confined to Germany, or even Europe: "We can offset a local preponderance of Communist strength by a determination to apply Western strength on terms other than those selected by the Soviets. Soviet tanks across the Autobahn to Berlin would interpose at only one of the many points throughout the world where the important or vital interests of the Soviet empire are vulnerable."

To the Russians, one essential of credibility was certainly the knowledge that the U.S. citizenry backed its Government's firm stand, whatever the consequences, and ordinary Americans were indeed preparing for any eventuality. After years of being treated with tolerant amusement, Civil Defense officials suddenly found themselves in demand. When the supply of booklets on civil defense ran out in Atlanta, the Constitution published a full page of excerpts. In Boston, Civil Defense Director Charles Sweeney--who as a World War II pilot dropped the A-bomb on Nagasaki--estimated inquiries were "up 1,000%." A Los Angeles bombshelter builder reported: "Now we have to screen the moderately serious inquiries from the damned serious inquiries."

The Basic Mood. But there was little sense of panic in such preparations, and the nation's basic mood was well expressed by Dr. Rufus Clement, president of Georgia's Atlanta University. Said he: "If we back down at any time because of threats, it will inevitably lead to surrender. The Soviets have decided to frighten the free world into accepting their aim. They must be met--calmly."

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