DEFENCE OF U.S.A.

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 148, 20 December 1945, Page 7

DEFENCE OF U.S.A.

DEPARTMENTAL MERGER

PROPOSAL BY PRESIDENT (By Tnlerjraph—Press Association —Copyright.; Rec. 11,10 a.m.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19

President Truman has proposed to Congress the formation of a single department of defence as the best means of keeping the peace.

Basing his recommendations on lessons learned during the war, President Truman urged, first, that the Department of National Defence should be charged with full responsibility for armed national security and should consist of the armed and civilian forces within the War and Navy Departments; secondly, the appointment of a civilian who would be.a member of the President's Cabinet as head of the department, with the title of secretary; thirdly, three co-ordinated branches, one for the land forces, one for the naval forces, and one for the air forces, the navy to retain its own carrier ships and water-based aviation.

The President further proposed that there should be.a chief of staff of the National Defence Department and that he, with the three commanders of the co-ordinated branches, should constitute an advisory body to the secretary of national defence and the President. "The plan must be looked upon as a long-term job which will present many difficulties," said Mr. Truman, "but in the comparative leisure of peacetime, and using skill and enterprise, our staff and the field commanders who brought us victory should start immediately to achieve the most efficient instrument for national safety. One of the lessons of the war was that there must be unified direction of the land, sea, and air forces at home, as well as in the theatres of operation. The United States did not have this when it was attacked, and certainly it paid a high price for its absence. THE NEED FOR STRENGTH. "The United States adopted the principle of unified command for operations early in the war, but there was not comparable unified direction or command in Washington. The aim of the United States in the maintenance of lasting peace has been shown in the efforts made to establish theUnited Nations Organisation, but all nations, particularly those which have felt the heel of the Nazis, the Fascists, and the Japanese, know that the desire for peace is futile unless there is also enough strength ready and willing to enforce that desire. We must assume that another war would strike more suddenly than the last, 3«ad directly at the United States. We cannot expect to be given the opportunity again to experiment in organisation and ways of teamwork while fighting proceeds.

"If there is ever going to be another global war, it is sure to take place simultaneously on land and sea and in the air, with weapons of greater speed and range, and our combat forces must work together as one team as they have never been required to do in the past."