And Now, the Communications Yap . . .

Samplings of the style and forthright opinions of the chairman-to-be of the House Armed Services Committee, F. Edward Hebert, offered last week in Washington:

ON VIET NAM. We should have moved in and destroyed everything--everything that was in the hands of the enemy. I decry bombing innocent civilians, but there was no impediment to our destroying the docks and harbor of Haiphong. If the Pentagon had listened to us two or three years ago, we would have had a victory now with the flag waving high. Now, it's a sorry mess. You don't go out to fight Jack Dempsey with one arm tied behind your back. You don't send kids to get killed and not win. Well, that's what they did. If you get out a gun, you had better be ready to pull the trigger.

ON THE MILITARY GOING MOD. I'm shaking in my boots. I am scared to death. When you turn the military into a country club, discipline goes out the window. The military is not a democracy. Are we going to have miniskirts in the mess halls? Will the commanding officer and the enlisted men pass each other and give a wave and say "Hi, toots"? They'll get so soft they won't get dirt on their hands.

ON REDUCING THE ARMED FORCES. It doesn't bother me. It means a million less bodies a year. It depends on what they are going to come up with. It doesn't take a division to run the bomber with the H-bomb. So let's get rid of the extra people. The butter is spread pretty thin anyway. All I am concerned with is that we have enough.

ON THE MILITARY. I am a big military supporter. When I have a legal problem, I go to a lawyer. When I have a bellyache, I go to a doctor. And I go to the military for military problems. It doesn't mean that I am going to take what they tell me, but I am going to listen and make a judgment.

ON SECRETARY OF DEFENSE MELVIN LAIRD.

We understand each other. There may be a communications yap, but there won't be a communications gap. That's a quote, boy.

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