Point Man Harold Brown

Monday, Oct. 20, 1980 By EDWIN WARNER
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Has the Pentagon chief become too political?

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Harold Brown enjoys a reputation for bringing a cool, scientific detachment to his job as Secretary of Defense. All the more surprising, then, that he has plunged into partisan politics this election year with the zest and hyperbole usually expected of more conventional politicians. In fact, Brown himself has become something of an issue. Indignant Republicans charge that he has painted far too rosy a picture of the state of U.S. defenses. Undeterred, Brown journeyed last week to politically important Texas (26 electoral votes) on an ostensibly nonpolitical mission to answer critics who claim that the U.S. military is woefully unprepared. Quite the contrary, insisted Brown. The U.S., he said, is "ready to go to war, if need be, and we are increasingly able to sustain our forces in combat."

Doubts about U.S. military readiness have been raised not only by Ronald Reagan and other outside critics of the Administration, but by several of Brown's top-level military subordinates. Before a House subcommittee last May, Army Chief of Staff Edward Meyer testified that he was seriously short of trained troops that could be quickly moved to Europe in case of war. Because of the lack of manpower, Meyer declared, the U.S. has a "hollow Army." In September, Air Force Chief of Staff Lew Allen Jr. told the Air Force Association that the U.S. has "serious deficiencies in its armed forces vis-àvis those of an increasingly powerful Soviet adversary."

Earlier this month Admiral James Watkins, Vice Chief of Naval Operations, warned the Senate Armed Services Committee that the U.S. fleet is stretched intolerably thin. Said he: "Over the past two years, the number of ships reporting marginally combat ready and not combat ready has been increasing steadily." Because of the loss of trained manpower, said Watkins, "I consider it to be the most serious personnel readiness situation that I have seen in over 31 years in the Navy." The Joint Chiefs are particularly worried about the shortages now that Carter has declared it is U.S. policy to protect the Persian Gulf from Soviet meddling. There is a possibly perilous gap between intention and capability about which Brown was questioned during his first stop of the day, at the Army's Sergeants Major Academy at Fort Bliss in El Paso.

Addressing the Rotary Club and-Chamber of Commerce in El Paso, Brown said in his familiar flat, slow-cadenced style that "allegations about U.S. weakness in the area of readiness are misleading." These flaws, he continued, are measured against "some ideal standard" that ignores the "shortcomings of our adversaries." According to U.S. ratings, the Secretary said, two-thirds of the Soviet army would be considered unready to fight. Still, Brown neglected to mention that even if that is the case, the Soviets have 57 combat-ready divisions, or three times the U.S. number.