Schlesinger for the Defense

...The old lines of the post-World War 11 alliances are almost gone...

...The likelihood is that the United States will be much more alone in the world five or ten years from now...

...Russian missiles are not nearly as accurate as their American counterparts and thus need copious throw weight to produce sufficiently large explosions to compensate" (Italics added for emphasis...

...He recently described the Soviet missile buildup as being "staggering in size and depth...

...Virtually all the oil-rich lands were under Western control or influence in the early 1950s when the NATO alliance was established...

...Certainly, President Ford's emphasis on the need for American military strength "second to none" is a world away from Dr...

...Let us hope that President Ford will not back away from this ringing endorsement of a strong national defense...

...We possessed overwhelming missile superiority at the time of the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, for example...

...a coming redeployment of American military manpower (300,000 plus) from Europe...

...It is also likely that the global economic situation, triggered by oil costs, will push this nation into a variant of the Fortress America posture...

...Elsewhere on the globe, the effects of the oil price will be no less disturbing...

...Add to this distressing situation the fierce renewed enmity between the Greeks and Turks, and the impending breakdown of the NATO alliance in southern Europe is very clear...

...parity on the part of an aggressive, totalitarian regime with a GNP of only $330 billion (USSR, 1971...

...Today, a vast transfer of wealth is under way, with billions of dollars flowing from Europe to the Arab oil-producing nations of the Middle East and North Africa...

...Fortunately, Mr...

...It seems only a matter of time—and very little time at that—before the weakest European countries (Italy, for example) are bankrupt...

...It may be that the United States should markedly alter its naval deployments, assigning a sizeable portion of the Sixth Fleet to the Indian Ocean...

...Schlesinger had the vi sion to see that the former missile-targetin, strategy has no relevance to present-da, conditions...

...Retargeting American missiles would impose a new restraint on Soviet leaders tempted to order a powerful first punch...

...The grim prospect is that Arab insistence on a high price for their oil may do to Western Europe—to the weaker NATO countries—what the Soviet Union failed to do in more than a quarter century of political maneuvering and military threat...

...President Ford and Secretary Schlesinger will need to mobilize broad-scale public support for renewed defense forces...

...But the impoverishment of Portugal as a result of a burst of revolutionary excess seems inevitable...

...Just as America's will for peace is second to none, so will America's strength be second to none...

...Unfortunately, the opponents of American strategic innovation are still with us...

...to expand our strategic forces...

...As America makes this long overdue change in its strategic policy it is appropriate to recall the tragically mistaken words of former Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, who said in 1965 that "the Soviets have decided to accept permanent strategic inferiority to the United States, and it therefore is no longer necessary for the U.S...

...At this writing, the fate of Angola, with its rich oil field and valuable mineral deposits, is uncertain...

...And in the SALT I agreement, Secretary of State Kissinger accepted Soviet military superiority—in an agreement giving the Soviets 1,618 ICBMs to 1,054 for the United States...

...The new cold-launch "pop-up" technique will enable the USSR to replace their single-warhead SS-11 missiles with four to six MIRV-warhead SSX-19s, within the silo limits of SALT I. By this and other developments, the USSR is gaining a significant new military capability and wiping out the qualitative advantage proponents of SALT I thought the United States would enjoy through the 1970s...

...He went on to stress that "We cannot rely on the forebearance of others to protect this nation...

...The five-year freeze was supposed to persuade the Soviets to halt their missile buildup...

...On the first page of the defense budget he submitted, he quoted the warning of the psalmist: "Where there is m vision the people perish...

...The likelihood that he will not is enhanced by his retention of Secretary of Defense James R. Schlesinger...

...Fortunately, Schlesinger understands the dimensions of the military threat facing the United States...

...establishment of closer defense ties with the one Persian Gulf oil-producing nation that wants to cooperate closely with the United States, namely Iran...

...But we want to view them prudently...

...Henry Kissinger's comment at a White House congressional briefing on June 15, 1972: "An attempt to gain a unilateral advantage in the strategic field must be self-defeating...

...Put simply, what Schlesinger recommended is that the United States be in a position to hit Soviet missile forces, if the need arises...

...In plain language, Mr...

...Schlesinger's prudent response to the growing Soviet missile threat (an estimated 7,000 MIRV warheads on Soviet missiles by the early 1980s as against a projected 1,650 for the United States) has been to devise a new missile-targeting strategy...

...has termed the Schlesinger missile retargeting goal "a drastic and dangerous change" in American nuclear strategy...

...This is a threat to military professionalism and may be a violation of the National Security Act...

...Moreover, he has a unique background for his position as a civilian head of the defense establishment, having served as a professional weapons analyst, assistant director of the Office of Management and Budget, chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission, and director of the Central Intelligence Agency...

...In that year, the United States had four intercontinental ballistic missiles for every Soviet ICBM...

...Realistic new defens planning will be needed for the nation' conventional forces as nations rise and fal in the era of fierce struggle over fuel...

...But even this obvious truth is challenged by those who would tear down the existing system for reasons which have not been shown to be in the public interest...

...The change in targeting," he explained, "simply means that we organize ourselves to develop the doctrine and plansby which we can introduce selectivity and flexibility in the types of targets struck in something short of an all-out war...

...What the know-nothings and the radicals refuse to consider is why a democratic nation with free institutions and with a gross national product of $1,073 billion (USA, 1971) should accept military superiority or even...

...Arthur G.B...

...The Schlesinger plan does not envision an all-out first-strike capability for the United States but a hedge against growing Soviet missile power...

...There has been a complete changeabout...

...The Arab nations are picking up between $5 billion and $6 billion a month in additional oil revenue, and the European countries are running deficits in that amount...

...In any case, such interference is unwise and hurtful...

...These global economic factors have to be cranked into American military policy...

...Inevitably, the United States will have to revise its alliance system as certain associated countries in Europe and elsewhere are brought to bankruptcy or near collapse by the staggering cost of fuel...

...The new senior uniformed military professionals are optimistic about America's military resources and capabilities, whereas at least one of the outgoing service commanders, Adm...

...Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr., took an extremely pessimistic view of U.S...

...And Japan, for all its postwar wealth and vast industrial machine, is reeling under new oil costs—$15 billion a year—which threaten its competitive edge...

...capabilities...

...He has pointed out to Congress that Soviet military spending has risen by at least 15 percent in real terms over the last few years, while since 1968 American military spending has decreased in real terms by about a third...

...How different the situation of Western Europe would be if Italy still controlled Libya, if France were still established in Algeria, and if Britain still maintained her influence over the Persian Gulf region...

...Americans have not yet really begun toanalyze the extent to which the high cost of oil from the Arab states will alter the status of many nations...

...This, in brief, is why Schlesinger is so intent upon creating a force capable of striking Soviet missile forces...

...has argued that the counterforce capability goal is "destabilizing"—an "in" word for something bad...

...This may be the greatest transfer of wealth in history...

...In communications, if nowhere else, regulation has been dramatically successful—a marriage between free enterprise and governmental surveillance thathas given birth to the best telephone system in the world...

...The Alternative: An American Spectator December 1974 15...

...Thus President Ford cannot simph say, as Lyndon Johnson did after taking of fice: "Let us continue...

...Competition which benefits a few...

...Instead, the Soviets have pushed new weapons development and deployment on a wide front...

...Anthony Harrigan Schlesinger for the Defense IN HIS FIRST major address to the Congress, President Gerald Ford placed a very important and necessary emphasis on the need for United States military superiority...

...In speeches and testimony before Congress, Schlesinger has stressed the increases in Soviet missile forces, ground combat units, and naval formations...

...Thomas J. McIntyre (D.-N.H...

...In a lengthy review last June of Schlesinger's report to Congress on the Fiscal Year 1975 defense budget, the Review said: "The word used to frighten people about Russian ICBMs is their 'throw weight,' that is to say, the size of the warhead they are capable of releasing...

...All the evidence points to a widespread breakdown of public order in India within a few years, despite that country's emergence as a nuclear power...

...What Schlesinger has done, in announcing missile retargeting, is to set aside a strategic force policy left over from the 1950s and 1960s when America had overwhelming military superiority...

...Secretaries of Defense come and go, but the uniformed professionals embody the experience of the services in combat...

...The power and diversity of the armed forces, the resolve of our fellow citizens, the flexibility in our command to navigate international waters that remain troubled—all are essential to our security...

...Untainted by Watergate and not a part of the highly politicized detente operations of the Nixon Administration, Schlesinger is well-positioned to play a strong role in the Ford Administration...

...They have to make the decisions as to which officers are best qualified for high command...

...Moreover, to answer those who say America can live with strategic parity, we should recall the words of Coral Bell in her book, Conventions of Crisis: "Peace is not best guaranteed by an equilibrium of power...

...The nations that once loomed large in our strategic plans and national calculations—Italy, for example—have retreated almost to inconsequence, except for sentimental considerations, while countries like Iran and South Africa, with wealth in oil or minerals respectively, loom as very important factors in our national security Indeed it is clear that we are moving away from an alliance-support strategy to resource-control strategy...

...With North Africa in hostile hands and the weak countries of southern Europe plagued by leftist fervor, labor chaos, inflation, and a crushing oil cost problem, the rationale for continued deployment of the United States Sixth Fleet in the narrow waters of the Mediterranean will require the closest examination...

...As th world order changes, President Ford an, Secretary Schlesinger will have to conve their perceptions of the new strategic situr tion promptly to the American people...

...Now, there must he parallel vi sion in developing new strategies fordepioy ing air power, sea power...

...increased emphasis onnuclear-powered naval construction and on seapower generally...

...Edward W. Brooke (R.-Mass...

...with air and sea forces providing a link-up to selected areas vital for America's access tc energy and raw materials...

...The augmented Soviet military power position and the changed ranking of nation: due to oil costs are together producing markedly different world picture thar Americans perceived in recent years or thar was projected by the Nixon Administration with its PR emphasis on peace throng} trade and detente with the Soviet Union...

...At the moment, that is the spilt milk of history...

...Secretary Schlesinger, however, is the carryover fron the past administration who was the first t( see and to articulate the need for a missill strategy appropriate to changed condition...

...We want to avoid undue alarm about these developments," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee...

...Given full information and the opportunity to decide, the public is best able to judge what's in its own best interest...

...Last February, he announced that American plans now involve aiming some long-range missiles at Soviet military targets and not just at cities...

...The Western countries—at long last—are paying the truly horrendous cost of hasty, ill-considered decolonization...

...American forces also had twice as many submarine-borne missiles...

...Which course is really in the public interest...

...By a strange happenstance of history Watergate.the change in the world scern became clear just about the time that political and/or constitutional crisis in th( United States resulted in a change in presi dents...

...We should match the Soviet counterforce capability," he said, urging the development of more accurate and powerful missiles...

...A strong defense is the surest way to peace," the President told the nation...

...Or preservation of the common carrier principle which has benefited all, regulated monopolies with clear accountability for end-to-end service, and the goal of universal service achieved through sound pricing policies...

...Th candor and openness the President ha promised on domestic issues also will b needed in discussing the life and death is sues of national security...

...The poor countries of Central and South America are no less vulnerable to the oil cost pressure than the countries of Europe...

...And Charles W. Yost, former United States ambassador to the United Nations, recently wrote in the Christian Science Monitor: "Does 'strategic superiority' or even 'equivalence' have any practical value aside from bolstering national machismo...

...One matter that does give concern to observers of the defense establishment, however, is Schlesinger's reported interference in the selection process for three-star and four-star generals and flag officers...

...Portugal has abandoned strategic Mozambique on the Indian Ocean...

...Opportunities for pushing ahead with -revitalization of the nation's armed forces are excellent in the months ahead...

...The know-nothing and radical elements are busily at work trying to downgrade the need for modernization of American defenses...

...All this is in refreshing contrast to the presidential messages during the final phase of the Nixon era, when the nation's Commander in Chief repeatedly insisted that a new era of peace had begun—an insistence that rang hollow in view of the massive Soviet arms buildup and the proliferation of conflicts throughout the world...

...The United States had 600 heavy bombers compared with 150 bombers in the Soviet air fleet...

...SALT I also provided for 950 submarine-launched missiles for the Soviets and 710 for the Americans...

...Let the public decide...

...construction of naval and air bases in the Indian Ocean along the oil route, possibly including ship repair and aircraft landing rights at the Cape of Good Hope...

...This is the crux of the matter...

...It is necessary to (It things differently, to view the world it terms of the new realities...

...NAT Yost would have the United States phase out its land-based missiles and stop considering "theoretical worst cases" in making strategic estimates...

...Since he was sworn in as Secretary of Defense on July 2, 1973, Schlesinger has worked hard to arrest the deterioration in America's military position and to develop a new strategic doctrine in accord with the realities of the mid-1970s...

...During the Johnson and Nixon Administrations, America's strategic power declined alarmingly...

...He combines this understanding with a determination to find new ways to augment American military power...

...it is best guaranteed by an assured preponderance on the side of the status quo...

...President Ford and Secretary Schlesinger not only have the nuclear-missile realities to consider in reshaping American strategy and force levels, but have to deal with the extraordinary changes in national power and ranking—plus alliance relationships —that will result from the soaring cost of oil...

...Metcalf, chairman of Strategic Review, has correctly described the Schlesinger missile policy as one of the first sure steps "in the direction of national 14 The Alternative: An American Spectator December 1974 security and world peace taken in a long, long while...

...and full development of the missile counterforce strategy envisioned by Secretary Schlesinger...

...England cannot be far behind...

...McNamara almost ruined us...

...Weakness invites war, as my generation knows from four bitter experiences...

...Indeed the United States must push for new missile weapons advances, including a missile warhead that can be maneuvered in flight...

...In years past, the United States had no need for such a counterforce capability...

...Thus the New York Review of Books, which plugged Hanoi's cause so hard in the 1960s, now is hitting hard against strengthening America's defenses...

...Schlesingerrecently swore in a new chairman and three new members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff...

...and ground unit to protect those routes, areas, and regime vital for continued American access t, energy and materials...

...of global power...

...They suggest a further, accelerated decline of NATO, except for the vigorous German component...