A Matter of Life & Death

In Washington a citizens' commission headed by RCA's Board Chairman David Sarnoff let fly last week with a roundhouse punch at the U.S. military establishment. In a report to Defense Secretary Charles E. Wilson, the Sarnoff Commission (formal title: the Citizens Advisory Commission on Manpower Utilization in the Armed Services) recommended "an overall reduction of at least 10% in men, money and materiel . . . in the operations of the Department of Defense." Such a cut, said the commission, "can be achieved . . . without diminishing the required combat effectiveness of our armed forces," and "would mean possible savings of at least 500,000 in civilian and military manpower and $5 billion annually."

"The Pentagon Jungle." The Sarnoff Commission's recommendations were the outcome of four months of bitter experience in what the report called "the Pentagon jungle." Established by Harry Truman's Defense Secretary Robert Abercrombie Lovett last October, the commission soon reached the conclusion that the armed services were trying to smother it with irrelevant data. Said Sarnoff: "The commission has received tons of information and not an ounce of interpretation . . . Cooperation from the services boils down to furnishing the commission with voluminous, lengthy and complicated documents . . . which leave the reader with a greater sense of bewilderment than he had before . . ." With suspicious eagerness the military passed along suggestions for saving manpower, many of them obviously self-defeating. Samples: abolition of West Point and Annapolis; withdrawal of 30 Navy men from the Defense Department's supply cataloguing program (which is designed to promote unification).

Much of the time Sarnoff carried on the commission's work almost singlehanded. Some of the other commissioners did not come to any meetings. In late December, a little more than a month after the commission had begun work, one of its eleven members,* Businessman Robert W. Johnson, board chairman of Johnson & Johnson (surgical dressings, baby products), resigned because his health would not stand the strain. Included in the commission's final report last week was Johnson's parting shot--a memo in which he rated the services "in terms of cooperation toward manpower savings." His ratings: Marine Corps--"Excellent"; Air Force--"Cooperative and open to greater progress"; Army--"Spotty, large areas of resistance"; Navy--"Militantly resistant." Johnson went on to declare that the only way to save money in the armed services is simply to cut appropriations, thereby forcing the services to provide "the greatest possible fighting strength" at less cost.

"Explicit Terms." The armed services, which have weathered many such audits, were prepared to dismiss the Sarnoff report with a rebuttal: "Confusing." Said one Defense Department official: "They set up a target, but did not say how to hit it." But the New York Times's Pundit Arthur Krock thought that the commission's findings displayed "good sense" and were "couched in explicit terms." If the U.S. goes to war again, said Columnist Krock, the U.S.'s chances of winning will be largely determined by the efficiency with which U.S. manpower is employed: "So the subject matter of the Sarnoff Commission's study and report was literally that of life & death."

To pick up where the Sarnoff Commission left off, Defense Secretary Charles Erwin Wilson last week appointed a committee to study ways of streamlining the organization of the Defense Department. Members of the new committee: Chairman Nelson A. Rockefeller, Dr. Milton Eisenhower, President Arthur Flemming of Ohio Wesleyan University, former Defense Secretary Lovett, Scientist Vannevar Bush, General Omar Bradley--and indefatigable David Sarnoff.

*The others: Sarnoff; Army Major General John B. Anderson (ret.); the Rev. John J. Cavanaugh, ex-president of Notre Dame University; Marine Major General Merritt Edson (ret.); General Foods Corp. Board Chairman Clarence Francis; ex-Navy Under Secretary Artemus Gates; Admiral John H. Hoover (ret.); American Airlines President C. R. Smith; ex-AEC Commissioner Lewis Strauss; Air Force Major General St. Clair Streett (ret.).

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