Nation: GENERAL ADAMS: TOUGHEST OF THE TOUGH

THE U.S. officer directing Exercise Delawar, General Paul DeWitt Adams, 57, is reputed to be the roughest, most hard-nosed American commander since General George S. Patton. Subordinates look into his leathery face, freeze before his cold stare and stern lips, dub him "Old Stoneface." The most combat-experienced commander on active duty, Adams expresses his military credo succinctly. Says he: "The man who creates the most violence in a military situation is the one who will win."

Adams has no time to be anything but succinct. Right now he is Commander in Chief of Strike Command (CINCSTRIKE), the unified command that welds Army combat troops and Air Force airlift and fighter planes into a highly mobile quick-assault force. He is Commander in Chief of U.S. forces in an area covering one-third of the earth's land surface, including some 70 nations of the Middle East, Africa south of the Sahara, and Southern Asia (USCINCMEAFSA). In his spare time, he is directing the evaluation of a controversial Army air assault division with which the Army hopes to prove that it needs a large air unit of its own for quick strikes. Air Force officers claim that the Army is merely trying to steal their troop-carrying and air-support role.

"An Open Mind." The selection of Adams to referee this Army-Air Force dispute testifies to his record of cold objectivity and ruthless fairness. Air Force Vice Chief of Staff General William F. McKee recently leaned across a Pentagon barbershop chair to tell Defense Secretary Robert McNamara that Adams was the best man in either service he could possibly have found to run STRIKE. And Air Force Chief of Staff Curtis LeMay calls Adams "the most objective officer I have ever run across in the Army. He has an open mind."

Adams drives himself and his staff to a frazzle. He works ten-hour days seven days a week. At his headquarters on Tampa's Mac-Dill Air Force Base, associates can recall seeing him in civvies only twice: once on a golf course, once in his office on a Sunday morning. He worked his staff on both Christmas and New Year's.

One officer was summoned to Adams' office at 4 p.m. on a Sunday, later caught a rare Adams smile. "Have a nice weekend," said Adams. "I'll see you Monday morning."

Genius by Sweat. Even bright junior officers who will not concede that Ad ams is innately smarter than they admit there is no way to keep up with him. Says one: "If genius is 90% sweat, then he is a genius."

By such sweat, Adams has built STRIKE in 21 years into a 225,000-man force that can speedily deploy eight Army divisions and more than 50 TAC air squadrons to any spot in the world.

During the 1962 Cuban missile showdown, Adams alerted some 100,000 men, readied 1,000 aircraft for takeoff, moved some 15,000 armored-division troops to staging areas. Nikita Khrushchev got the message.