ARMED FORCES: Man Behind the Power

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In a sense the Korean war was perhaps the antithesis of this spirit, inviting compound failure: before Korea the U.S. vacillated in its Asian policies, and the peace was lost; the U.S. then took the correct step of intervention and subsequently proved unwilling to carry out its will by full force. But after Eisenhower made his decision to end the Korean stalemate, he followed through with a second decision that put the U.S. back onto a logical policy footing. "This was the first time' in the history of our nation," says Radford, "that we didn't break up our military after a war. In fact, we built it stronger. We increased its strength with new weapons, new weapons systems and new tactical procedures."

Unrelenting Strain. Around the atom, which now comes in almost all shapes and sizes, the U.S. now deploys a versatile force—Army, Navy and Air Force—designed to 1) deter wars, 2) to win wars and 3) to give precise support to U.S. diplomacy at precise points. Such a force-in-being, constantly under re-evaluation and re-equipment, demands such phenomenal expenditures as $15 million for an atomic-submarine power plant (about as much as a World War II light cruiser), $8,000,000 for an intercontinental B-52 jet bomber (as much as 42 World War II 6-175), $3 billion for an intercontinental missile program that will usher the U.S. into the costlier age of space.

Such a force-in-being—or force-soon-to-be—demands the services of a phenomenal one-tenth of the U.S. labor force to man, equip, maintain and feed it. It also demands the unflagging efficiency, enthusiasm and watchfulness of the front-line crews and the steady support of the public during years of strain that know no letup. Whenever Admiral Radford gets away from his three briefcases of Sunday homework to take a drive with his wife Marianna (which is rarely), he must first outline his exact route to a duty officer, so that troopers can be deployed to bring him back in a hurry, if necessary. A crew chief in the Strategic Air Command is subject to the same kind of discipline.

Unexcelled Understanding. That the U.S. has been able to muster up and manage such a huge and sustained military power, and thereby give weight to U.S. diplomacy, is due largely to the happenstance at the right place and the right time of Arthur Radford and his brood of new leaders, battle-tested and thoroughly professional. Their thoughts range freely across the complexities of foreign aid to Iran, say, or the possibilities of interplanetary junketing, just as they keep pace with the fantasies and the donkey work of their jobs. Admiral Radford, a rugged (6 ft. 163 lbs.) man with sharp blue eyes and close-cropped sandy-grey hair, was once a zealous apostle of naval aviation who delighted in baffling battleship admirals and big-bomber generals alike. But Radford has grown in the Joint Chiefs as he has grown into all of his career responsibilities, and he now yields to nobody in his understanding and specific knowledge of the best military-diplomatic interest of the U.S. Items:

¶ He is in tune with the new technology: "We. can't hope to compete with the Communist manpower, but we can build up an organization that can apply superior power at the right time and place."