Tactical Error

On the day he retired as Assistant Secretary of Defense, Dr. John A. Hannah unveiled a new plan for a reorganized military-reserve force (TIME, Aug. 9). As Hannah described the plan, the Air Force and the Army Reserves would be merged, the National Guard federalized, and "all qualified young men" called up for military service. Some 3,000,000 veterans would be signed up in an active, ready reserve.

Any plan that close to universal military training and any plan that would upset the powerful reserve and National Guard lobbies is politically imprudent in an election year. Last week, 72 hours after Hannah's announcement, Presidential Press Secretary James Hagerty summoned the press, announced that Hannah's story was premature. Neither the White House nor the National Security Council, he said, had approved the plan. There would be no decision on it until September, at the earliest.

The Pentagon was thrown into a tizzy by Hannah's announcement and Hagerty's demurrer. Attempting to muffle the drumfire of complaints and inquiries, Secretary of Defense Charles Wilson reassured the Army, the Air Force and the Organized Reserves that their separate identities would be preserved. But Wilson resolutely backed up his former assistant, pointed out the crying need for a realistic reserve program. In the event of war, he said, the

U.S. reserves setup "would be a scandal, and very disturbing to the American people."

The present Selective Service Act expires June 30 of next year, Wilson noted, "so by January or February we will recommend new legislation to maintain our military establishment. We know perfectly well that we cannot maintain around 3,000,000 men in uniform by volunteers alone. With the situation we face in the world today, we must have some form of assured service by practically all of the physically qualified young men of the country."

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