Is Enough Being Done?

Tom Dewey's own well-timed plan for U.S. mobilization came 24 hours sooner and was far bolder than Harry Truman's program.

Before a battery of microphones at the annual dinner of the New York County Lawyers Association, Governor Dewey advocated: calling up the entire National Guard forthwith; universal military service; de-mothballing the entire Navy; a draft step-up to give the U.S. 100 divisions, each nearly twice the size of Russian divisions; an Air Force of at least 80 groups.

On the home front, he called for immediate economic mobilization under a strong administrator with full authority over economic controls, production and civilian manpower. Abroad, he said, the U.S. should make it plain which areas of the world it is prepared to defend, should form a military alliance with Tito and Franco, arm the Germans, Japanese and Nationalist Chinese, limit Marshall aid to countries which would help the U.S. fight in case of war.

In tone and temper, Governor Dewey's proposals were more impressive than the Administration's, though he had the advantage of being able to call for acts and programs he did not have to deliver on. Timed as it was, Governor Dewey's forceful speech put the prestige of the Republican Party's titular head behind all that President Truman proposed to do, and then some.

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The uneasy feeling that the Administration, and perhaps the U.S. itself, was not fully alert to the common danger showed also in the formation by a group of distinguished U.S. leaders of a Committee on the Present Danger. High in its ranks were Harvard's President James Bryant Conant and Dr. Vannevar Bush, wartime head of the Office of Scientific Research & Development. Dr. Bush complained that while Russia strengthened its radar defenses the U.S. was busy completing television networks.

"I agree with Winston Churchill," said Vannevar Bush, "that our possession of the bomb has been the only deterrent to Russian aggression." Dr. Bush predicted that--with faster jet planes, proximity fuses and other developments--Russia would eventually build such a defense that the U.S. would have difficulty in delivering the bomb to any primary target. He added: "When the time comes that we can't get at primary targets, we must have some other means of stopping Russian aggression." An armed force of 3,500,000 would not be enough, he said, adding: "It can't be done by the U.S. alone. It must be done by all the allies on the front at the same time."

Asked if the U.S. could not similarly defend itself against an A-bomb attack, Dr. Bush said: "I don't think we have had the depth of attention given to the danger."

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