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Show dekind the Jdeadlined Entirely apart from whatever successes or failures come out of our missiles test center at the Cape Canaveral, Florida, the missiles mystery is deeping in Washington. The Army has named. Lt. Gen. Arthur G. Trudeau to succeed Lt. Gen. James M. Gavin as its chief of the Army's Research and Development Command, as Gen. Gavin retires March 31. That isn't exactly news; the announcement an-nouncement was made a week ago. However, what has not been told is that the disclosure has puzzled more than a dozen key congressmen and senators, who are anxious to quiz Gen. Trudeau the moment he returns to the Capitol. The story behind Gen. Gavin's retirement is pretty fully known by now. He claims that he felt the Army missiles role was being curtailed, restricted by inter-service inter-service rivalries and political influences, that it had become a "poor stepchild" among the other services and that Army Research and Development funds the President requested in his post Sputnik budget were only a shade more than those asked in the pre-Sputnik budget and that these are wholly inadequate to cover even the increased costs of weapons over a year ago. Gen. Gavin told me at his desk at the Pentagon early last Sunday Sun-day morning where he "came in early to cacth up on some work" that the last thing he wanted to do was to sever his ties with the Army. He stressed that he had no intention of accepting an invitation from Pennsylvania republicans re-publicans to run for the U. S. Senate to make a "political football" foot-ball" out of his differences with the administration and his Pentagon Pen-tagon superiors. Despite "great pressure and the public offer of another star if he reconsidered. Gavin said he felt he could do more for our missiles program outside the Army, criticizing it as a private citizen. "I am red hot about this," Gavin said, adding that we would continue to hear a lot more about him and his criticisms of the Pentagon's missiles program after he retires. Congressional reaction to the Army's selection of Lt. General Arthur G. Trudeau to succeed Gavin was overshadowed by all the other Pentagon missiles testimony tes-timony out of Washington. But it's an open secret that many senators and representaives were stunned by what they regarded as a most puzzling choice. Gen. Trudeau, 55, is considered one of the Army's most able men, who should have been brought into the Pentagon inner circle a long time ago. He is a former chief of Army intelligence intelli-gence and an expert in foreign trade, economics and politics as they apply to strategic military policy. He is at present, commanding the I Corps in Korea. His unquestioned un-questioned abilities are one reason rea-son why congressmen refrained from criticizing the appointment until he could testify before House and Senate committees. But the choice still is regarded as a puzzling one. Trudeau is a longtime member of the Army's Corps of Engineers Engi-neers and holds a degree in civil engineering from the University of California. He graduated from the U. S. Military Academy in 1924 and is regarded as an expert ex-pert in Army amphibian operations, opera-tions, such as the undertaking of invasions. He is from Middle-bury, Middle-bury, Vt., and served in the No. African, European and Southwest South-west Pacific Theaters during World War II, where he gained his reputation as a foremost amphibious am-phibious warfare expert. However, Gen. Trudeau, admittedly ad-mittedly has had little direct experience in studying, planning and developing new weapons. He says he "was as responsible as anyone else" for using the first rockets in the Army during the second World War, but has had virtually "nothing to do with missiles" in Korea, where he is now stationed, or in Japan. Senators Sen-ators and Congressmen were stunned by the fact that the new successor to Gen. Gavin had no significant experience in new weapons development or in missiles mis-siles at a time when the major portion of the Army's research budget is for missiles and anti-missiles anti-missiles development. General Trudeau said he "hopes to pick this -up" by spending some time with Gavin before he retires. Gen. Gavin had no prior missiles mis-siles experience either and made good. The Army is confident that Gen. Trudeau also means it when he says he intends to "instill a sense of urgency and prevent rivalries" ri-valries" when he takes over his new command. But it will take valuable time for Gen. Trudeau to learn the missiles ABC's at the moment Pres. Eisenhower is promising a speedup. Gen. Trudeau Tru-deau has a reputation as an able administrator. But several Senators Sena-tors asked if he is so able, why have all the abilities recommending recommend-ing him now been "wasted" in work unrelated to missiles or weapons development? Others have asked if we don't have Army developed administrators with more scientific, engineering and missiles experience? The name of the former commander com-mander of the Army missiles center at Huntsville, Ala., Col. John C. Nickerson, comes to our minds. But he, like Gen. Gavin, criticized Pentagon policies, was court martialed, fined and then exiled to Panama. The White House declared, ironically, to a Congressional inquiry the same day Trudeau's appointment was announced, that Nickerson will stay in Panama as far as it is concerned. |