Battle Plan for Cities

ARMED FORCES Paln for cities Since last summer, when 70 cities were blitzed by bloody rioting, the nation's police forces have built up an arsenal of riot arms ranging from armored cars to the Mace chemical spray gun. In further preparation for civil dis order, Army Secretary Stanley R. Resor reported last week in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Pentagon has drawn up a battle plan for the cities as meticulous as any contingency planning for Southeast Asia.

Under the Pentagon scheme, seven special task forces of Regular Army troops -- more than 15,000 men -- have been assigned as an elite service to cope with urban disruption. The riot forces will be dispatched only if the Na tional Guard -- which has been undergoing special riot training since its woefully inept performances in Newark and Detroit last summer -- cannot do the job.

"The National Guard forces," Resor told the Senate Committee, "are more than adequate for the discharge of all but the most extraordinary state security missions when they are well led, used decisively on the basis of advance planning, and appropriately trained, equipped and organized."

With that bit of hedging, the Secretary announced that the Army would start a special school in civil disorders for ranking Guardsmen later this month at Fort Gordon, Ga. To further lessen the chance of Regular Army troops being needed to quell city riots, the Pen tagon has established a unique logistics system that will supply Guard units with specialized riot gear not normally issued through regular channels. Protective body armor, bullhorns, search lights and portable tear gas dispensers have been stockpiled at scattered secret depots throughout the nation. Enough radio sets to equip two infantry divisions have been pre-positioned on the East and West coasts to cut down delivery time to the scene of a disturbance; military planning packets (including maps, transportation and troop housing data) are being prepared for cities where rioting may occur.

Thus, in the event of racial violence in the cities, it will ultimately be the na ion's most thoroughly integrated institution -- the Army -- that will be called upon to establish order.

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