The CHAIRMAN. I want to congratulate you on having your personal opinion ready to give to the committee.

I feel that when the chairman expressed his views on this matter on the first day of the hearings, you were given sufficient advance notice of how he felt about it, so I am sure there can be no of your having ready this excellent plan.

Thank you very much for preparing and presenting it.
General KIRK. Thank you, sir.

(The chart submitted by General Kirk is as follows:)

criticism

The CHAIRMAN. General Grow, do you have a statement for the committee?

STATEMENT OF MAJ. GEN. MALCOLM C. GROW, AIR SURGEON, ARMY AIR FORCES, WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C.

General GROW. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, by way of introduction, may I say that my 29 years of military service have been divided almost equally between the Ground Forces and the Air Forces.

I saw duty with the AEF in World War I, joining the Air Forces

in 1929.

During World War II, I served as surgeon of the Eight Air Force and the United States Strategic Air Forces in Europe and in the Pacific, relieving General Grant as air surgeon in October 1946. Consequently, I consider that my viewpoint is reasonably comprehensive. It reflects my experience with the two forces and is based upon my concern for the welfare and advancement of the medical services and the unified establishment.

I heartily endorse S. 758, under terms of which adequate medical services may be provided for the three fighting components. It is at once apparent that our total medical resources, both of personnel and matériel, must be utilized with the greatest economy if a desirable type of medical coverage is to be afforded to every echelon of the military structure.

The bill provides the management necessary to coordinate the military activities of the three departments and to establish equitable policies on matters of common interest to the services.

The medical service is but one of many phases of administration which will benefit by the management and control provided under this plan.

The flexibility inherent in this plan is, in my opinion, one of its strong points. The bill does not, and should not, attempt to solve legislatively the many problems which are properly the responsibility of administration. Medical service for the defense establishment is vital to the combat efficiency of our fighting forces. The manner in which this service is to be organized is, under this plan, properly left to those responsible for the over-all effectiveness of the defense establishment.

It is conceivable that the most efficient organization of the medical service today may not be the best under conditions which may exist in the future. Under this plan, if future conditions dictate readjustments, the matter can be properly handled by the Secretary of National Defense, the Service Secretaries, and their professional advisers.

I therefore recommend passage of this bill as presently written. I do not desire to presume upon the valuable time of this committee by going into a lengthy and detailed discussion of organizational aspects of the medical services. I will be happy however, to attempt to answer any questions which members of this committee may desire to ask.

The CHAIRMAN. General Grow, the limitation of time and the fact that we do not now have a quorum compel the chairman to

ask that we delay asking any further questions today. The same goes for Admiral Swanson.

I hope that we can some day early next week have both of you back before the committee.

Senator HILL. Mr. Chairman, in that connection, I state frankly, that I want to ask General Grow about the plans submitted here by General Kirk, personally, and I therefore would like to ask, if possible, that General Kirk come back, because naturally, as the author of the plan, it would be well to have him here, if we can. The Chairman happens to know that General Kirk planned on a trip.

General KIRK. I will be back Thursday afternoon, sir.
That is my plan.

The CHAIRMAN. Possibly we will have other witnesses who may take up all of next week, and then we will call all of you back together, and, at a convenient time for all of us, and for all of you, go into this again.

Senator HILL. If I may say so, since I suggested that the general come back, I hope he can be here, but I certainly would not want to interfere with his trip to Texas. He may see something there in Texas that will be not only tremendously helpful in that tragic situation there, but it may give him further light on the question that he has been talking about here this morning.

The CHAIRMAN. So the committee will stand in recess, then, until next week. And before we close the hearings, let me say that the chart presented by General Kirk will appear at the close of his testimony in the record.

(Whereupon, at 12:20 p. m., an adjournment was taken, subject to the call of the Chair.)

NATIONAL DEFENSE

ESTABLISHMENT-UNIFICATION

OF THE ARMED FORCES

TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 1947

UNITED STATES SENATE, COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES, Washington, D. C.

The committee met at 10 a. m., pursuant to adjournment, in room 212, Senate Office Building, Senator Chan Gurney (chairman) presiding.

Present: Senators Gurney (chairman), Robertson of Wyoming, Saltonstall, Tydings, and Byrd.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order.

Prior to this meeting this morning, we heard representatives of the Army and the Navy.

This morning, the committee is very happy to have the top ranking man in the fine United States Marines, General Alexander A. Vandegrift, Commandant of the United States Marine Corps.

General, the committee is very anxious to have in the record your statement on this very important piece of postwar legislation. You may proceed in any way you wish. I am sure before many minutes of the hearing go by, we will have some more committee members present. If you proceed with your formal statement, they can catch up with you when they arrive.

STATEMENT OF GEN. A. A. VANDEGRIFT, COMMANDANT, UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS, WASHINGTON, D. C.

General VANDEGRIFT. Mr. Chairman, I have a very brief formal statement that I would like to read to the committee, if I may.

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, as Commandant of Marines and spokesman for our corps, I desire to discuss certain features of the pending measure.

I have never opposed the principle of unification, although I have expressed strong disapproval of the objectives underlying the original Collins plan for outright merger of the armed forces. I am in accord with the over-all objectives which the bill now under consideration seeks to attain.

In order to make clear what I consider the over-all objectives of this bill, I would like to interpolate the following paragraph:

The over-all objectives of S. 758, as I see them, are those of establishing a more economically integrated means of providing for national security and at the same time formalizing the proven machinery that was developed to such good purpose during the war, and included in this bill, such as:

The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Munitions Board, the Research and Development Board, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Council, and the National Security Resources Board.

In order to tie together these agencies, and for better coordination of the several services, there should be an executive appointed from civil life by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, whose duty, under the direction of the President, shall be to recommend to him policies and programs for the National Defense Establishment. He should be empowered to exercise supervision and coordination of the departments and agencies.

Since reading some of the testimony which has been given before this committee, particularly that of General Eisenhower and the Under Secretary of War, Mr. Royall, I have become increasingly concerned about the danger of lessening the degree of civilian, including congressional, control over our Military Establishment by concentrating great powers in a single individual. As a result of this testimony I have become apprehensive of the results that may ensue unless those powers are more sharply defined and there is a clearer meeting of minds as to just what authority is vested in the Secretary of National Defense.

I think it is apparent to everyone that this is a bill of the broadest national character, with a heavy impact upon the civilian as well as the military structure. I am sure that any imperfections will be adequately dealt with by other witnesses called before this committee, witnesses who are leaders in the fields of government, education, science, industry, and labor, and who are competent to speak in the broad terms necessary. My own comments will be confined to the military aspects of the bill, and within that field I shall limit myself still further to those defects of immediate concern to the Marines.

Stated concisely and with respect to the Marine Corps, the defects of the bill are twofold:

First: It affirms the existence of the Marine Corps without expressly stating the roles and missions which the corps is expected to perform.

Second. It completely excludes the Marine Corps from participation in the joint bodies and agencies which the bill would establish. In the balance of my statement, I shall elaborate upon these defects and attempt to convey to you their full import.

The failure of the bill to assign specific functions to the Marine Corps is a source of grave concern to me, for it allows the corps to be stripped of everything but name-to reduce it to a role of military impotence. I wish to dwell upon the position of extreme vulnerability in which the corps will be placed by enactment of the bill in its present form.

Unless a statutory statement of the missions of the Marine Corps is included, its functions become dependent solely upon the arbitrary judgment of the Secretary of National Defense. The size, the character, and the organization of the corps will lie in his hands. There is not a single specialty which the Marine Corps has brought to a state of perfection which cannot be summarily transferred to some other service.