Rockets' Red Glare

It was fitting enough, in the season for the celebration of the nation's independence, that the Congress should cast its eyes and votes on defense appropriations for the coming year. At the same time it was not too surprising that outspoken Defense Secretary Charlie Wilson should set off the firecrackers too soon -by labeling as "phony" the attempt of the Democratic majority to add an extra $1.1 billion to the Air Force budget (TIME, July 2). Result: the fireworks zoomed, whistled, crackled and spun through Capitol Hill's legislative corridors last week.

Nothing would erase Charlie Wilson's slur on the honor of the U.S. Senate. Its armed services special subcommittee on airpower listened unbendingly as Air Force Secretary Donald A. Quarles tried to head off the proposed increase. The Air Force, he said, already has "the most powerful striking force on earth." But then, illustrating an astonishing Air Force two-headedness, Quarles admitted that Air Force Chief of Staff Nate Twining thought he needed an extra $7 billion over and above the budgeted $16.5 billion for the coming fiscal year to boost the number of bomber wings from eleven to seventeen by 1960.

When the bill for the extra Air Force $1.1 billion got to the Senate floor, Georgia's Democratic Senator Richard Brevard Russell took the occasion to shoot off a rocket of his own. Charlie Wilson's vanity and arrogance, blasted a quivering Dick Russell, "have been excelled only by his lack of understanding of the genius of American Government. I say it is dangerous to have a man so completely inept and unequipped for this responsible position occupy the office of Secretary of Defense." When Russell sat down, not a Republican rose to defend Wilson. Then, as most Republicans quietly fumed over the Wilson blunder, the Democrats rammed through a slightly shaved $960 million "present" to Dwight Eisenhower's Air Force, sent the completed defense bill (total: $34.6 billion) to the White House for his signature.

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