The Public Policy/Go Navy

...John Norton Moore is director of the Center for Law and National Security at the University of Virginia School of Law and is the author of numerous books and articles on international law...

...And because the Army and wherever the Western alliance would Soviet basing facilities in North Africa, a time of budget cuts we must develop Air Force will now enjoy even greater need it...

...UNIVERSITY PUBLICATIONS OF AMERICA Dept...

...The exposure is especially necessary at this time in view of the International C ourt ofJ ustice's ruling whitewashing Sandinista aggression...

...All of it important it is for us to command the peaceful and economically successful develin the way they now intend to place pri- hinges on the balance of naval strength...

...The problem is, our legislators are (regardless of the Grenada rescue or the position can be taken, decisions are decision-making...

...And so, the Army and Air Force have far more generals (412 and 343 respectively) than the Navy and Marines (318 combined), which is not entirely unreasonable since they are, after all, the two largest services...

...Their buildup shows no begin to compete with our other a drastic shift in resource allocation strictly with sea power...

...the Middle East, Southeast Asia, not greater global "reach," the kind our influence, it is not inconceivable that This is not a piece of military ideol- to mention Cuba and possibly Nicara- maritime forces can provide...

...These capabilities strategic interests for us...

...Also at stake is man...

...It is also a subtle, would speak not to our strengths but planes, and missiles...

...The birth of a central bureaucracy not only will undermine both principles, it will almost surely mean the death of the vital competition of military ideas, with the Navy and the Marines taking a back seat...

...Soviet submarines back toward their threat will require us to think long have less...

...More alarming, it will isolate our civilian leaders from decision-making, with the new JCS Chairman taking command initiatives without their approval, and, in time, it may hamper our operational ability in every military theater around the world...

...drove high-level government officials to risk so much to aid the Contras...

...What The Secret War in Central America: Sandinista Assault on World Order by John Norton Moore In The Secret War in Central America, John Norton Moore has written the definitive exposé of the Sandinista war against El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica...

...Price: $17.95 (cloth...

...Indeed, their ability to compete in the policy arena will be compromised...

...emphatically arrived on America's doorstep is and growing...

...The reformness student will tell you this is a for- questions, which in turn makes them claim is that since members of the ers' answer...

...Mandatory reading for the layperson as well as the specialist, this book is an original, clearheaded account of the Central American crisis that has wide-ranging and significant implications for the application of international law in a region plagued by guerrilla warfare...

...does a Marxist Nicaragua mean for the future of democracy in the Western What Hemisphere...

...As Navy Secretary John Lehman pointed out in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, American defense is predicated on two basic principles: "that ultimate control of defense must remain, in both concept and substance, in the hands of civil authorities," and "that those who have the responsibility to carry out a function must also possess the requisite authority—and those who have the authority must be held to account...

...A-AS287 • 44 North Market Street • Frederick, MD 21701 (301) 694-0100 32 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR FEBRUARY 1987 ing as "reform...

...But this legislation isn't just an organizational travesty masqueradNow, the story behind the headlines: What is really at stake in Central America...

...They could do this because they brought their particular perspectives—air, maritime, land—to bear on particular problems, with no single service suppressing the views of the others...

...is that the new Chief will assume a The whole debate over what consti- favored place in the operational chain tutes the best form of modern defense of command, strengthening his role as organization and how it should stand principal spokesman for the nine comin relation to our operational capabil- manders who control our nation's ities has been going on ever since the forces...

...U nfortunately, this solution will not be efficient and in fact betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the proper role of the JCS...

...Limit the independence of mula for disaster...

...The result could mean a re- talk about winning a war in Western a narrow margin of overall superiority American resolve in facing up to—and if alignment in our present defense Europe, or anywhere else for that mat- in naval tonnage, the Soviets have growingnecessary,fffoa rcti nigy dt the nSoviet — a c ounns poi cnutoou es xl y posture...

...These caps are set by congressional mandate, with the number of generals per service based proportionally on the total number of men per service...

...But since the Navy and Marines will not have as large a representation in this bureaucracy, they will have a proportionally diminished voice...

...Lots of people talk about international law and Central America but few really examine the question...

...In the gua...

...Those leading the aside parochial biases on both opera-Washington that the best way to ever-changing political and technolog- reformist charge think such a system tional and procurement issues, and reform an institution or resolve an ical climate, is a very complicated ques- encourages shoddy military thinking since consensus is required before a organizational problem is to centralize tion...

...This will now change...

...The because it stifles individual initiative, result is the new Goldwater-Nichols ignores the importance of individual Military Reorganization Act...

...A centralized JCS that can coast (and away from the sea lanes and hard about how we are going to potentially restrict our flexibility and along which American troops and sup- maintain a competitive military edge in tie the hands of our Navy is not the T he whole question of impartial- plies might travel), while computer- the future, especially as the changing answer...

...In The Secret War in Central America, John Norton Moore breaks through the double talk and exposes the true nature of Soviet-subsidized aggression by Cuba and Nicaragua against the rest of Central America...

...Any first year busi- frequently befuddled by complicated terrorists nabbed in mid-air): Their needlessly compromised...

...This is as true at the administrative level in the Pentagon as it is at the operational level in the field...

...Its intensity has At first glance, all of this may appear waxed and waned over the years, but to be nothing more than an arcane it has remained essentially intact and defense quibble—which, alas, it's not...

...America and the West can no longer entertain a formalistic "legalism" which only leads us to a false alternative of institutional self-destruction tantamount to the tragedy of "appeasement...

...w _ GO NAVY by Thomas Donatelli T here is a knee-jerk reaction inside resources, especially in a world with an ners, and advisers...

...refuses to go away...

...This really isn't very It is a significant change from our surprising—after all, how a global traditional system in which the heads power should go about effectively of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and structuring and deploying its military Marines conferred with our leaders on defense policy, in concert and as Thomas Donatelli is an assistant editor equals, while attending to their respecof the Public Interest...

...this challenge our Navy and Marines come from one of these services, ready event of war in either Europe or the may not need more influence than our to influence policy in this direction...

...This competitive atmosphere not only guaranteed that our leaders received the broadest possible advice on everything from strategy to procurement policy, it also insured their full control over the substance and direction of policy, making political accountability unambiguous...

...Bruce McColm Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Organization of American States John Norton Moore tells us that the U.S . response to terrorism and other secret aggression (as embodied here in the Soviet-backed Sandinistas) can and should be based upon bedrock reality and the abiding principles of Western law and international order...

...tral front at the expense of our other lines of communication...

...accountability, and injects a good Roughly speaking, this legislation measure of sluggishness into the mak- will, in the name of efficiency, dismaning of decisions...

...Under the new JCS, each service will be required to take a designated number of command advisers away from their respective services and commit them to a centralized bureaucracy that in turn will oversee the affairs of all four services...

...And while this Navy with a strong enough voice in . • . the Pacific challenge has nevertheless manifested itself through a primary distance can provide an important, Washington to make itself heard...

...opment of some 60 percent of the populamary reliance on a single JCS Chair- It therefore makes no sense for us to Today, although we continue to enjoy tion of the world...

...International law cannot be permitted to evolve into a suicide pact for free societies...

...In addition, all top men have become so carried away with military commanders (those in the field our defense dilemmas that, in a last included) will be answerable to the new ditch effort to find quick solutions to Chief, who will also double as the prinour problems, they have aimed their cipal adviser to the NSC...

...Morris I. Leibman Sidley & Austin Order Form The Secret War in Central America copies @ $17.95 Maryland residents: Please add 5 percent sales tax Postage ($1.25 per book) Total $ All orders must be accompanied by payment (check or money order...

...could occur away from our maritime would—at minimum—have to win its ease the limitations their geography im- This doesn't mean that we should turn divisions in favor of our conventional war, which would mean guaranteeing poses on their ability to project a blind eye to our European responsiair and land defenses in Western a measure of sea control whenever and power—limits partially surmounted by bilities, but it does mean that even-in Europe...

...As David determined, and ill-advised effort to re- to our weaknesses...

...Concretely, the but a sea power isolated by oceans also be sustained and this requires a reformers' strategic perspective has from Europe and Asia...

...It will impose more bureaucracy on an already overly bureaucratic Pentagon by creating yet another layer between the Secretary of Defense and the field corn-manders...

...stake increasingly urbe addr e theater in the event of a war, very much not offer absolute protection...

...end of World War II...

...Professor Moore has now done so, and the spotlight he shines illuminates the situation brilliantly...

...Yet, prior to this ill-conceived reorganization, these generals tended only to their own services, and could therefore compete in the world of "military ideas" from their own particular perspective...

...Indeed, some congress- Chief of Staff...

...If they get their way, decisive battle, defeat the Soviet Union strike bombers...

...To meet a newly empowered JCS Chairman will ogy, it is a geo-political fact...

...In its traditional form, the JCS avoided this danger by functioning as a team to provide careful, balanced advice on defense policy to our elected, politically accountable leaders...

...The United States make it possible to strike decisively at Aikman has pointed out in his recent direct the entire course of American is not, first and foremost, a land power Soviet sea and air power, but they must book, Pacific Rim': strategic thinking...

...For one thing, centralized Please send order form and payment to: bodies are not only less flexible, they are less vulnerable to constitutional checks and therefore less accountable...

...But our Navy signs of abating and will only help to defense obligations around the world...

...In the peculiar semantics of Marxism-Leninism, "liberation" is a term that describes subversion and enslavement—and a screen for what used to be called "aggression...

...tle the JCS as it has traditionally exSo why has Congress done just this isted in favor of a nineteenth-century in its attempt to curb bureaucratic and Prussian-style centralized military buoperational inertia in the Defense reaucracy, headed by a single military Department...

...Since pand its strategic and political influence in proportionate emphasis on NATO'S cen- working command of the major sea 1970, the Soviets have introduced thir- the Pacific Ocean...

...He knows undue dupes for the "new ideas" boys waiting JCS are also chiefs of their respec- the four services and endow an all-concentration on organization is bound in the wings for the right moment to tive services, they are unable to set powerful JCS chairman with decision-to create more problems than it solves, pounce, and pounced they have...

...Available now...

...This arrangement allowed our maritime and amphibious forces, although smaller, to maintain a creditable voice...

...ity aside, however, such a shift based naval defense systems could world economy, and with it a growing would create a strategic orientation that engage hundreds of enemy ships, Pacific Basin, begins to redefine our 'Little, Brown and Co., $8.95 paper...

...Perhaps the political salvos at the wrong target— most disturbing aspect of this new law the Joint Chiefs of Staff...

...Quite simply, a strong and independent military is one capable of tyranny...

...So Pacific, our naval forces would have to other services (although some say they much for the suppression of parochial move forward globally in order to drive S uch a growing and considerable do) but they certainly cannot afford to biases...

...Elliott Abrams Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs This is the most thoroughly documented book on the subject to date...

...tive services as administrators, planTHE AMERICAN SPECTATOR FEBRUARY 1987 31 making (i.e., command) authority...

...The Joint Chiefs are not, and were never intended to be, a centralized decision-making body, and for good reasons...

...seas, and have responded accordingly...

...Moore brings to light this "invisible war" and places it in its historical and political context: the Sandinista betrayal of the 1979 revolution, the pattern of Soviet-Cuban aggression in Central America, and the worldwide Marxist network supporting "wars of national liberation...

...This is not to teen new classes of submarines, new regional interests in the Middle East or suggest that we could, even through battle cruisers, aircraft carriers, and Clearly, this new region will soon Southeast Asia...

...Reformers want to put a dis- ter, if our Navy cannot even sustain a almost three times as many ships...

...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR FEBRUARY 1987 33...

...nder the present command structure, each service has been allocated a maximum number of generals (in the case of the Navy—admirals) who may serve at any given time...

...The reasons for this are clear...

...At is the impatients thf future reliance on a single strategy, service, or even decisive military advantage, it does The Soviets know all too well how es sed...