A Look at the Military

...But Janowitz doesn't say that...

...Reviewed by S. L. A. Marshall Military critic, The Detroit "News" Being a distinguished sociologist who eschews most of the gobblede-gook of his trade and also a citizen of fair mind who is familiar with the Pentagon and its inmates, Morris (Morry) Janowitz would probably be incapable of writing an inferior book about the military in today's America...

...There is too much in it which is of enduring value for reference purposes and to jog one's own thinking...

...This, I fear, is one of those general propositions against which the late Justice Holmes warned all comers, if not a glittering oversimplification of which all social scientists should fight shy...

...There is one other word of personal appreciation: 1 have always found that for the military writer, whether he works in tactics, command psychology, logistics or whatever, the most blessed texts are those with which he warmly agrees a large part of the time, and for the rest of it feels stirred to argument, mild or violent...

...There have been all types, through all ages, within the military, as in every other field of human endeavor...

...The influence of this work will last long and may outlive its author...

...Only a few months ago Oscar Morgenstern, the Princeton economist, in his book, The Question oj National Defense, attested his belief that the top men of the U.S...

...Being his colleague for several years on the Department of Defense's Special Operations Commission almost compensated for the fact that our time was otherwise largely wasted since we could never determine who in the Pentagon had the authority to make a decision...

...but he also understood the impact of Grant as a person upon the private soldier...

...it is as refreshing as going to school under a professor who dares to dispute the authorities...

...All who take it seriously and are qualified to weigh its contents critically will alternately praise and damn it...

...He knew how and where to direct large forces...

...This is to say that the great logistician is quite likely to be also the general who wins men by his warm, human quality...

...One of the major changes which Janowitz feels has been accelerated by the atomic weapons revolution is a shift toward "managerial types" in the higher command...

...As for the trend, let's again require proof of change...

...Janowitz as a person has this quality...

...In the words of the old song: "You don't know how much you have to know in order to know how little you know...

...He sees a clean line sharply dividing this category from the spiritual leaders who breathe patriotism, accent the ideals and work for a following which feels soul loyalty...

...There are certain truths one comprehends only by living longer and exploring first-hand a greater number of situations...

...Furthermore, within the military, today as yesterday, the majority of highly qualified and respected leaders, are not exclusively one thing or the other, but the two in combination...

...Social scientists, military professionals and plain citizens with an interest in the forces which shape their times will read it...

...All services are included and there is a great deal of discussion about the character and influence of the civilian components and their leaders...

...Said General "Lightning Joe" Collins, the former Chief of Staff, after a first scanning: "This is one we've got to live with and chew on for a long time to get the real juice out of it"—which expresses the main idea...

...He is relatively young...

...This is not to say that they lack anything as "managers" of great enterprises...

...The title chosen is therefore obviously too narrow...

...In his tributes to them, Janowitz uses such words as "scholarly" and "intellectual," but says frankly he thinks the Army top tier betters Navy and Air Force in this...

...What Janowitz calls The Professional Soldier is in fact a study of the human stuff of the United States armed services in this present— whether one terms it the atomic era or the space age—their place in the free society, its attitude toward them, their evolution under the impact of new weapons systems, the standards of their leadership, the effect of their modern dimension on the public affections toward them, an evaluation of the military as a career, what trends are apparent within them and what changes are indicated for the future, etc., etc...

...It is this experience which provides the leads to original work...

...but it is to point out that in spiritual quality, most of the generals who today are regarded as logistical wizards would by comparison make John J. Pershing...

...After all, the fundamental study of generalship is not tactics or strategy but man's nature—how people in the mass react to hardship, fear, discipline, fatigue, respect and love...

...But the greater part is jim dandy, though readers are advised to take it in small doses...

...blessed with a rich sense of humor, enthusiastic and almost effervescent in conversation, and possessed of a mind so logical that it wastes no time in being clever...

...Hasn't it been quite a flattering season for them and isn't this a bit unusual...

...Or come down to Grant in the Wilderness...

...His book is not another one of those infertile exercises in which the author attempts to diagnose what he calls "the military mind" and warn against its malignancy, having first arbitrarily decided, and usually out of his ignorance, that there is such a thing...

...In that approximately one-third of his book which I feel is unsound or questionable, the weakness comes not so much from lack of perspective or diligence in research...

...So at the start, let's risk a prediction...

...Charles P. Summerall and Malin Craig look as cold as Sam McGee...

...However, let's get on with it...

...Most of the remaining 20 per cent do it by self-promotion, by following the rule of the jugular, by slashing and ripping and crawling on some other person's back...

...So doing, they will acquire a vast amount of what Janowitz calls "expertise" on the armed establishment and its problems...

...Moreover, this has remained so through the ages and cannot be changed now, simply because Univac is with us and some people say that moon travel will come tomorrow...

...General George Decker, who recently became Chief of Staff, and General Lyman L. Lemnitzer, who moved up from that position to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are two of the warmest, most popular Americans ever to rise to high rank...

...But no one who reads very far, and has as much feeling for the military as does Janowitz, will throw the book away...

...There are far more bouquets than bites, which is to say that the armed services come out quite well when seen magnified through Janowitz's glass...

...military are more dedicated, more open-minded than our best diplomats and politicians, and more energetic and imaginative than the leaders of industry...

...For instance, I would defy my friend Morry to read the Bible and then say flatly that Gideon was a flag-waver rather than a managerial type...

...It will not be found certainly in the Army...

...My point is that the military have as great variety and are as multifariously motivated, conditioned and nourished as the sons of industry or the lilies of the field, and it is nonsense to pretend otherwise...

...In the armed services, as elsewhere in the society, somewhere around 80 per cent of the big wheels make it through sheer merit and the acclaim of their associates...