A Sense of Urgency

Threatened with a potential lag in essential war production, grave-faced officials of WMC, WPB, Selective Service and Army & Navy met hurriedly last week in a Washington office. Their problem: to devise rapid ways & means of giving the nation a new "sense of urgency." The trouble was partly of their own making. For two full years the congenitally optimistic U.S. people had been soaking up the sunny predictions of official and semiofficial spokesmen. Samples:

Admiral William F. Halsey (New Year's Day, 1943): "1943 will see . . . complete, absolute defeat for the Axis."

General H. H. Arnold (February 1943) : "I have an appointment in Berlin a year from today. . . ."

Lieut. General Mark W. Clark (November 1943): "It is my hope and belief that before [November 1944] the Battle for Europe will have terminated in a smashing victory. . . ."

General Eisenhower (December 1943): "The Allies will win the European war in 1944."

Under Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson (August 1944): "Victory over the Germans is not far off."

General George C. Marshall (in the Army & Navy Journal dated Dec. 7, 1944): "Before this statement is published, hostilities might have terminated in the European Theater."

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