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Show GRASSROOTS Nation Is Not Preparing For War That It Dreads By Wright A. Patterson DOES THE PRESIDENT really believe that we are destined in the near future to be engaged in a full scale shooting war with Russia, or are his numerous war scares merely for the purpose of encouraging encourag-ing more and larger appropriations and the levying of more and greater great-er taxes? His actions In connection with our preparations for war would not indicate that he fears an Immediate conflict. We are certainly cer-tainly not preparing for such an eventuality. He announced a year ago that Russia had perfected an atom bomb. On the basis of that statement state-ment congress authorized an air fleet of 75 fighting groups including a larger number of bomber groups. The President did not then think such an air force was needed, and arbitrarily reduced the number to 62 groups, despite the verdict of the congress and the air commission which he had appointed. Since then he has raised the fig ures to 85 groups, but has not ordered order-ed the planes or recruited the per sonnel for such a force. We are told that Russia has now an air force of 50,000 fighting planes, and the President said that Russia has ,ie atom bomb with which to destroy our ground forces ar.d to devastate the towns and cities of our European Euro-pean allies as well a' those of this country. To meet that force we have, including in-cluding those of our European al lies, some 5,000 effective plmes, which include some 50 or 60 capable of attacking Russia. We are talking of or planning for a fleet of from 50,000 to 75,000 war planes. But so far it is only talk, none of them have been ordered. We have adequate facilities for building such a force, but the job cannot be done overnight. Should Russia have the force she is credited with having, and if she has atomic bombs, as the President tells us she has, without our having adequate air protection for our airplane plants, Russia could destroy those plane plants, and there would be no possibility pos-sibility of our meeting the Russian bombers. We are told we are building tanks, guns, and other equipment for the ground forces. We are recruiting, -y draft methods, an army of 3,500,000 men, but such an r.rmy cannot hope to alone meet the lorr.S 7,000,000 men of the Russian Red army. No ground army we can muster, whatever what-ever its size, can defeat Russia, without an adequate air force to support and protect it. Such an air force is the first thing needed should war come, and it seemingly seeming-ly the last thing be!ng provided. Possibly those who are directing the preparedness program are listening list-ening only to the top brass of the army. They would think in terms of ground troops and their equipment To win a war ground troops are necessary but Eisenhi.wer knows that air power is equally needed. Congress authorized and ap propriated funds for the construction con-struction of radar listening equipment for both the east and the west coast that our planes might have an advance warning of Russian planes, should an attack at-tack come. The President has Ignored that legislation. It was a lack of radar that primarily was the cause of the Pearl Harbor Har-bor catastrophe. A German contractor had delayed delay-ed the completion of the station, and, because they did not know of the approaching Jap planes, such air force as we had in Hawaii were caught on the ground and destroyed along with the naval vessels that could have gotten out of the harbor, had their commanders known what was coming. But with that recent illustration as a reminder, the President has not taken steps to protect our east and west coasts, with Ell they would need should war actually come. is such things that cause me to think that the President is using his frequently repeated war scares for political purposes rather than because be-cause of his actual belief in any threat of war. A full scale congressional congres-sional investigation of our preparedness prepared-ness program and what is happening might be well worth while. It is too serious a matter merely for the playing of politics. If we are threatened with war, ve must prepare both for offense and defense, but we must do it in a practical way, not merely talk about it, and do first things first. |