Charlie's Big Thumb

Defense Secretary Charles Erwin Wilson, a man who makes vast good sense when he confines his conversation to the familiar worlds of industry and production, demonstrated again last week his equally vast ability to say the wrong thing at the wrong time "in the wrong place. At Quantico, Va., where he had gathered 150 of his civilian and military defense leaders for the annual review of defense spending, Wilson and newsmen engaged in this exchange:

Q.: Mr. Wilson, Prime Minister Eden has announced that the British are going to cut their defense spending by a couple of billion dollars . . . I was wondering just what effect this has on our defense plan.

Wilson: Well, I have great sympathy for Prime Minister Eden. I don't believe his problems are too different from mine.

Q.: Yours are to stave off more money, aren't they?

Wilson: I think that's a phony.

The Trade-Off. What Charlie Wilson appeared to be calling "a phony" was indeed phony enough. The Democratic leadership of the U.S. Senate, aided and abetted by many rank-and-file members of both parties, was trying to foist off on the Defense Department an extra $1.1 billion for the Air Force--which the Administration, after arduous consideration, had decided it did not need. At the same time, but by no means the result of erratic happenstance--the Senate Democratic leaders, again urged on by bipartisan rank-and-filers, seemed determined to lop $1.1 billion off the foreign-aid program--a cut which the Administration, after painful consideration, had decided would be next to disastrous (TIME, June 4 et seq.).

One reason for the $1.1 billion tradeoff between Air Force funds and foreign aid was that Air Force General Curtis LeMay, boss of the Strategic Air Command, had testified that the Russians will soon have a larger bomber force than the U.S. A more direct reason was that 1956 is an election year, and giving money to the Air Force is more attractive politically than handing it over to "foreigners."

Caught in a political vise, the Administration tried desperately to twist loose. From Walter Reed Hospital came word that President Eisenhower was willing to accept a compromise $500 million increase for the Air Force. As for foreign aid, Republican leaders could only hope that the Senate would heed its own Foreign Relations Committee and slash Administration requests by no more than $400 million this week.

The Sizzler. Into this delicate situation Charlie Wilson thrust his heavy thumb, outraging Senators of both parties by impugning the motives and dignity of the august U.S. Senate. Democrat after Democrat arose to denounce Wilson; several of them demanded his immediate resignation. Republicans for the most part sat in embarrassed silence.

With the storm swirling about him, Charlie Wilson at first stood by his charge of "phony." But--presumably after a sizzler from the White House--he later claimed that reporters had "misunderstood" him, explained that he had meant "phony" to apply to the newsman's question, not to the Senate. It was late in the day for such excuses: by saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, Charlie Wilson had again done damage to the program of the Administration he serves faithfully and--in areas that he knows something about--with great ability.

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