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Show Is This Where We Came In? War Department Thinks Not By BAUKIIACE Neies Analyst and Commentator "Just now Washington isn't as warlike as it sounds. The emphasis is on defense, not offense. However, there are conflicting con-flicting views on what we ought to do . . ." That sentence just about reflects sentiment here as I write these lines a sentiment that has changed rapidly in the last few weeks, days, hours, and may change still more before these lines are printed. That sentence also reflected the sentiment in Washington eight years ago. (I found it among my clippings of the column which appeared early in October of 1940.) I had just come back from the war department depart-ment which then was located on Constitution avenue, ave-nue, There wasn't any Pentagon building then. I bad been inter-vewing inter-vewing an officer on the subject of j In case you have forgotten, the United States army, the greatest military machine in history, was "redeployed" out of existence and under such pressure from mothers and wives, and at such a breakneck speed, that in many cases it didn't leave a pile of scrap behind it to mark the spot whence it melted and dribbled away. The Red army didn't re-deploy. It is still largely deployed. de-ployed. And so here we are again! Panicky Outlook Is Not Justified One might become exceedingly pessimistic, one might grow panicky. But, as I think over the interviews, as I recall the faces of those men ' charged with our nation's defense, as I ponder the words, the tone of voice, I must say the net impression of the contacts is to make me feel I more hopeful than I had felt before. "our new citizen army." "According to many letters I get" (I wrote) "what a lot of people want to know Is why we need a citizen army in peacetime?" A lot of people are asking that question again today. The answer which I reported to you in this column col-umn eieht vears aeo was this: "Speed is what counts In an army today. We aren't calling out these boys to fight anybody. We are calling them out to train them so they'll be ready if we ever need them. The United States can always al-ways raise a big army If war is declared. But neither we nor any other country can raise a trained army overnight. And a lot can happen in the night these days. What we want to do is to train these men for a reserve . . ." It was a year and three months after I wrote those words that something some-thing did happen, not in the night, but in the early morning, over Pearl Harbor. We didn't start it. The Japs did the deciding. They decided that we had to go to war. The Lesson's Over, TVo Time for Recess Today we have more to say. We have learned a great deal since December 7, 1941. We have learned how to fight a global war and win it. The question is will we do the things which will prevent a global war? That will be something if we do. Meanwhile the wheel seems to have made the circle and some of the boys who were learning squads right in 1340 are wondering if this is where they came in. I had a chance to think about that on another trip back from the war department recently, or I should say the department depart-ment of national defense. It's a longer journey now than it was to the old "temporary" World War I build-Inff build-Inff on Constitution avenue. The It was only three years ago, In April, 1S15, that this high point o' Kussian American camaraderie was reached when Maj. Gen. Emil F. Reinhardt of the U.S. first army greeted the major general commanding com-manding the Hussian 58th infantry division at a meeting of American and Russian units at the Elbe river in Germany. I had been pretty depressed when I began the round of calls in the various var-ious little cells that open onto the endless corridors of the Pentagon offices, large and small, with maps on the walls, the men in uniform or civilian clothes at desks. When I left, I had the feeling that here were men who were looking at the task before them coolly and calmly, neither obsessed with a certainty that they were moving Into another Inevitable conflict nor Indifferent to the possibilities that such might be the case. "We anticipate no belligerent or provocative move on the part of the Russians. We don't pretend to be able to say what their plan is, or whether they have one. In any case, it is not our move. Whether there is to be peace or war depends upon the men in the politburo. We have no way of knowing what their next step will be. We doubt if they have made up their minds . . ." And then one official came back to the remark I quoted before: "Personally," he said, "I do not Pentagon sprawls geometrically over 310 acres across the Potomac in Virginia. The message I brought back was very much like the one I reported eight years ago. It was a reassurance that the request for three billion more dollars dol-lars for national defense is what the military men say is the minimum mini-mum peacetime expenditure to prevent war. In other words, defense, de-fense, not offense. It was pointed out that if it were necessary now to prepare for actual conflict, the cost would run closer to 50 billions than three. I was most heartily assured that the United States did not want war, that no encouragement whatever was being given those few persons who. urged "preventive" action. With less certainty, but advanced as an honest opinion, was the statement that Russia Rus-sia did not want war, either. "There is no reason, as far as we know now," one official told me, "why war cannot be avoided, provided a reasonable balance is established between the military forces of the two countries. Now we are in imbalance." It was noted that Russia and her satellites now have under arms nearly near-ly twice the number which this country and the anti Communist countries of western Europe could put in the field. It is well to remember too that the Russian Red army is mobilized; it is largely concentrated in eastern Europe, whereas American troops are thinly scattered over the whole earth. Russia has never really demobilized, de-mobilized, she has more combat planes and men to man them; she has a greater land force; a numerically-superior artillery. think Kj:ssia wants war. I am certain cer-tain that we do not." As I say, I went out past the reception re-ception desk, through the high doors and out to where the quiet river holds the city in its tranquil embrace. em-brace. It looked no more turbulent, no less peaceful, when, during the war years, I used to come out that same door with my notes interpreting interpret-ing the latest strategic war in Normandy, Nor-mandy, the breakthrough at St. Lo, the Battle of the Bulge, Patton's tactical miracles. ' Washington is calm. The other day as I opened my closet door, I noticed my trenchcoat with the faded j blue patch with "war correspondent" i on the shoulder. It didn't give me a turn. After all, we have just won the greatest victory of its kind in history the completion of the plan to aid Europe. That and a few , bloodless steps which caution and 1 not desperation dictate are enough j for now. I I Even clergymen are able to think fast in a crisis, even though those I who are prone to sleep through inter- minable sermons may be inclined ; to doubt the assertion. But up in Cambridge, Mass., a policeman was induced to tear up a speeding ticket when a clergyman he had stopped j explained, "You have to be fast these days if you want to save souls." June is the "dew month" in Japan. Ja-pan. In this country, we insist, every month is "due month." We are strong in bombing planes, but she has a . stronger defense in fighter and interceptor planes. She is believed to be producing from 75,000 to 100,000 planes a year. We produced 1,700 military planes of ell types last year. But "our biggest shortage is in equipment," said a veteran officer. One might go on at great length. I won't. I have rehearsed the sad story of "redeployment" ever since I first heard it from a general's secretary, sec-retary, vho, like most of the rest of us, thought it was "reemployment" |