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Show Your Man In Washington By U.S. Senator Orrin G. Hatch II in maw linn- Carter's National Defense Policy Let s take a look at the Carter record on national na-tional defense and military affairs. On May 21st Major General John Singlaub, Chief of Staff of U.S. Forces, Korea, was removed from his command com-mand for suggesting that a total ground troop withdrawal from South Korea wotdd lead to war. On June 2nd, as recently re-cently reported in a Jack Anderson column, this Senator received a letter from the President promising promis-ing that the Singlaub incident inci-dent was not intended to muzzle independent military thinking. The President assured the people peo-ple of Utah that his administration ad-ministration "will not stifle sti-fle dissent." Two weeks later, on June 10th, Lieutenant General Dunn Starry was reprimanded at the Pentagon Pen-tagon because he suggested sug-gested in a graduation address ad-dress to the Frankfurt American High School in Germany that the U.S. might someday be en-snarled en-snarled in a conflict between bet-ween Red China and Russia. On June 30lh President Presi-dent Carter stopped funding fun-ding for the Bl bomber. The decision was a complete com-plete surprise. Lven the national news media reported the President would approve limited funding for the bomber in order to retain a negotiable option for the SALT talks. They were obviously mistaken. The Bl bomber is no longer an element of our national defense system. One week later, on July oth, the Secretary of Defense, under orders from the President, closed the production line for the Minuteman missile svstem. A major portion of that missile funding went to Utah. Without the funding, fun-ding, the Minuteman III is no longer a part of our defense system. These seemingly unrelated un-related events, when considered con-sidered together, give a pretty clear picture of the Presidents "big stick" strategy for dealing with the U.S. military community. com-munity. By intimidation the President has signalled to the military that he will allow no dissention or second se-cond guessing of his policy judgements. Then, with the experts properly notified not to "cross" the Commander-in-Chief, he began routinely to dismantle disman-tle the national defense system. And finally, by cutting cut-ting strategic arms before the commencement of the SALT talks, the Carter administration has signalled sig-nalled that this nation is adequately defended and will continue to weaken its national defense posture through downward negotiation ne-gotiation in meetings with our potential advisory. |