With Courage & Good Sense

"These decisions,", said Robert Mc-Namara, "are absolutely, unequivocally, without qualification, irrevocable unless some new evidence is brought to our attention, and the chances of that are damn small." With that rock-hard statement, the U.S. Secretary of Defense last week announced an action for which he deserves the silver star with enough oakleaf clusters to foliate a forest. Instead, about all he is likely to get is a political purple heart. He is closing down, phasing out or consolidating 95 military in stallations, ranging from isolated radio towers and obsolete missile sites to some of the nation's most famous air-bases and some of its biggest shipyards.

Eighty of the installations are in the U.S., 15 abroad; in all, 33 states and the District of Columbia will be affected. By the time the shutdown program is completed, 63,401 jobs will be eliminated, 376,720 acres will be released for nondefense use, and an estimated annual saving of $477 million will be achieved.

With Good Reason. High time, too.

Many of the bases were relics of a military establishment that was built to a peak during World War II. They have been kept open as needless (some of them operating at only 15% to 30% of capacity), inefficient, costly monuments to the politicians' notion that military spending provides a sure and painless path to local prosperity.

Secretary McNamara began cutting down on such installations almost as soon as he took office in 1961. Before last week, he had closed 574 of them, thereby eliminating 85,834 jobs (32,921 civilian and 52,913 military), declaring 1,083,978 acres and 61 industrial plants surplus and saving $576.8 million a year. But the bases involved in last week's announcement were, for the most part, larger and therefore more politically sacred. McNamara described as "absolute baloney" the idea that he had waited until after the elections to make his move. He had, of course, done just that--but even the politicians who were firing barrages at him would privately admit that his timing was simply political realism.

A Trip to the Yard. On the day before he made his announcement, McNamara and his aides got 169 telephone calls from Members of Congress, most of them protesting the prospect that installations in their districts or states might be closed. When McNamara issued his list, Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, joined in the chorus of anger.

Informed that Hunter Air Force Base at Savannah was to be a victim. Georgia's Democratic Senator Richard Russell, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, cried: "It is totally unjustified, and I shall challenge this decision vigorously!" Most anguished of all were the New Yorkers, confronted by the loss of several installations including the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In rare agreement were Republicans Nelson Rockefeller and Jack Javits and Democrats Robert Wagner and Bobby Kennedy. Bobby even made a trip to the navy yard to commiserate with workers there.

More than Survival. The idea that an old military installation is vital to local prosperity is mostly myth, as has been demonstrated time and again by communities that have not only survived the loss of bases but actually benefited. Thus, when Donaldson Air Force Base in Greenville, S.C.. was closed in 1963, the city and county took over 2,400 acres, turned the property into an industrial park that will create 4,800 new jobs in the area--more than the base ever provided. Firestone and General Electric acquired parts of an Army signal depot in Decatur, III., have expanded employment by 50%. Most notable was the bounce back of Presque Isle, Me., which converted an abandoned airbase into Skyway Industrial Park, quickly brought to the area plywood, shoe, and box manufacturers, along with propane, paper, and printing companies. All told, the industrial park as part of a complex drew 2,000 new jobs to the area, compared with 1,475 at the old installation.

Many former military sites have been taken over by educational institutions, including the Universities of California, Kansas, Pittsburgh and Miami. Examples: 500 acres at San Diego, once owned by the Marine Corps, now serve as a new campus for the University of California; a site in Louisiana is being transferred to the University of Southwestern Louisiana for a new branch that will have 3,000 students.

To appreciate all that, of course, requires a long-range view, and, in making his bold move, Secretary McNamara risked shortsighted attack. It is clear that he had the full backing of the President. Lyndon Johnson's willingness to shoulder the political consequences demonstrated a high degree of courage and sense.

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