U.S. DISPUTE ON POLICY FOR FORCES

Grey River Argus, 14 October 1949, Page 5

U.S. DISPUTE ON POLICY FOR FORCES

Admirals Say Attack Is Best Defence (Rec 10.15) WASHINGTON. Oct 12. American Fleet Admirals Ernest King and William Halsey, to-day denounced the atomic bombing theory of warfare, and they asked Congress to strip the Defence Secretary, Mr Johnson, of the authority to weaken the United States naval power. They atacked what they called “mistaken and overplayed” theories of intercontinental bombing, and said ( in any war, striking power must be hurled not at cities, but at the enemy’s military forces.

Admiral King, wartime Chief of Naval Operations, in a statement, which was read at the Armed Services Committee, said that the next war would be fought much like the last, with vast armies and navies. The notion that the United States’ 836 and atom bomb combination would frighten an aggressor was wishi.il thinking. There had been an exaggeration of strategic bombing in the defence plans at the expense of national safety. He urged i' Congress and not Mr Johnson, shoul decide what the U.S. Navy should spend. Admiral Halsey told the committee that the United States, instead of waging war against civilians, must be prepared to strike at strictly military targets. It must seize command of the, air and the sea and must cut the enemy’s fighting forces to pieces.. The Navy’s mobile units could play a major part in such warfare. Admiral Halsey, whose carrierbased planes battered the Japanese in the Pacific War, said that the objective of stopping and finally driving back an enemy onrush could only be done by attacking the enemy's armed forces and his transport system.

He said: "The bombers by-passing these paramount military targets won’t stop anything, except possibly bullets from thousands of high-flying fast fighters, which the aggressors will have.”

He said the United States should be prepared, with giant naval forces, to make pincer movements against an enemy on a world-wide scale. The mobility of the naval forces was a prime requisite for victory. Both Admirals King and Halsey urged the completion of the giant aircraft-carrier, the construction of which the Defence Secretary, Mr Johnson had stopped.