Defense: The Dilemma & the Design

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> McNamara has built up the U.S. capability to fight nonnuclear war. The Army now has 16 combat divisions instead of eleven, the Air Force has 21 tactical wings instead of 16, Marine Corps has been increased by 15,000 men to a force of, 190,000. To fight guerrilla actions, the Army's Special Forces has been tripled to 5,600 men. The Air Force's F-105 fighter-bomber, previously valued for its nuclear firepower, is being modified to carry conventional weapons as well.

> McNamara has immensely speeded up the building and placement of nuclear-armed missiles in hardened sites and elusive submarines, where they can survive an enemy attack and hit back. The first 30 fast-firing, solid-fueled Minuteman missiles are now operational, a year ahead of schedule, in protected underground silos in Montana. By 1966 some 950 will be ready to fire. Nine Polaris submarines, each carrying 16 missiles that can be fired from beneath the sea and reach the Soviet heartland, now patrol the North Atlantic. By 1966 there will be at least 30 Polaris subs. The U.S., with an estimated 50,000 nuclear warheads and bombs, has enough nuclear material to wipe out the Soviet Union several times over.

> McNamara has presided over a fundamental reorganization of the armed services to increase efficiency and save money. Where top Pentagon officials formerly had to wade through as many as eleven separate—and often conflicting—intelligence reports from the services daily, they now get a single, four-page summary from the unified Defense Intelligence Agency. Millions of dollars have been saved on items ranging from belt buckles to bloomers by the creation of a single Defense Supply Agency. Instead of the charming, old-fashioned practice of trying to cut up the defense budget pie more or less equally among the services, McNamara now budgets by function, cutting across service lines to provide funds for Strategic Retaliatory Forces, Continental Air and Missile Defense Forces, General Purpose Forces, Airlift and Sealift Forces, Reserve and National Guard Forces. Over anguished protests, he is pushing ahead with a reorganization of the National Guard and Army Reserve, including the elimination of 1,850 units. He has ordered nearly 100 military installations shut down, including many overseas.

While plunging into such specifics, McNamara never lets them blur the end purpose of his cold war strategy. That strategy was explained to Congress fortnight ago in a 198-page report that House Armed Forces Committee Chairman Carl Vinson, who has fought some McNamara policies, described as "one of the most significant documents ever presented to Congress."