Nation: Point Man Harold Brown

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Brown claimed that charges of unreadiness were exaggerated. One example he cited: five out of the seven U.S. aircraft carriers that are unavailable for combat are undergoing overhaul; the remaining two could be quickly returned to duty. Responding to the claim that fewer than half of the 2,100 U.S. tactical jet fighters are fully "mission capable," Brown maintained that the figure is misleading because combat readiness would be given top priority in wartime. Said the Secretary: "The vital question is not how various military units score in our status reporting or readiness rating system. The important question is: Are we able to go to war if necessary and to fight effectively? Let me assure you, the answer to that question is yes."

Brown ticked off some of the gains in military preparedness during his tenure: a tripling of spending next year, to $1 billion, for spare parts for the Air Force; the shipment of enough equipment to Europe to enable the U.S. to dispatch four divisions to the Continent within two weeks, in contrast with only one division in 1976; by the improved ability of the U.S. to move forces to the Persian Gulf by placing seven supply ships in the Indian Ocean and by negotiating the right to use ports and airfields in the region in an emergency. Brown properly gave credit to the Ford and Nixon Administrations for initiating many of these efforts. After the speech he told TIME: "We're better off than we were four years ago, but you can't say we're stronger vs. the Soviets than we were." That is certainly true, since the Soviet Union continues its military buildup at a faster rate than the U.S. Why, then, was the Carter Administration, soon after taking office, so willing to cut $4 billion from Ford's proposed Pentagon budget for fiscal 1978? Replied Brown: "What we were doing in 1977 was scrubbing what we had inherited. Probably we should have waited a while and taken a more careful look before we did it."

No sooner had the Defense Secretary taken issue with his critics on U.S. readiness than a Pentagon memo was leaked that seemed to confirm their worst fears. Major General James H. Johnson, vice director of plans and operations for the Joint Chiefs, instructed a subordinate to hold up a readiness report because Brown had "expressed concern that our current . . . formats only emphasize the negative aspects." The Secretary, Johnson added, has asked for "greater emphasis on the positive factors." Though Brown had been grousing for weeks about the readiness rating system, he did not dictate the embarrassing memo. It was, said his spokesman, Thomas Ross, a "screw-up."