Clear the Track

Within a matter of hours last week, the nation's whole military posture changed.

The most dramatic news of improvement came from Korea. After 83 days of defeat, retreat and dogged defense on the Pusan perimeter, General MacArthur threw a mixed corps of soldiers and marines into an assault on the Communist-held Korean capital of Seoul--a strike which might well shorten the Korean war by months (see WAR IN ASIA). Washington, also, had its Page One reports of a change for the better. Defense Secretary Louis Johnson was fired by an irate President, and General of the Army George Catlett Marshall came out of retirement to succeed him.

The most sweeping change of the week was still only a blueprint. But its size and scope were staggering. The Joint Chiefs of Staff had arrived at a realistic estimate of what it would cost to build up the strength the U.S. and its allies needed to meet the pressing threat of world Communism. The program, reaching far beyond the $17 billion the President had asked of Congress since Korea, might eventually take one-fifth to one-sixth of all that the U.S. can produce each year.

That meant that the U.S. could expect to start spending $50 billion to $60 billion a year for the arms it needed for itself and its friends abroad. For that price, the U.S. could buy within the next three years:

P: An Army of 25 divisions.

P: Navy of 400 warships.

P: An Air Force of 90 or 100 groups.

Heavy as the cost was, there was no reason to believe that President Truman and his new Secretary of Defense would not buy the J.C.S. recommendation, or something like it in scope.

Only in the conference of the Big Three foreign ministers, who were dragging their feet on the question of German rearmament (see INTERNATIONAL), did the old hesitations and half-efforts persist. Otherwise, for the first time in many months, the nation could begin to feel that the track was clear and the train crew knew where it was going.

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