We are encouraging American industries through American investors in such foreign countries through our purchases to also gain a vested interest in low-cost labor. Second, that through our purchases through the DMPA, ECA, and MSA and other appropriations of taxpayers' money for foreign purchases and for the money used for stockpile purposes, by Emergency Procurement Service, both have been and can be in the future manipulated alike through Executive orders recommended by the multiple bureaus and agencies in the executive to break the domestic market on any mineral or material that is included in these inventories. Do you agree with that, Mr. Walsh? Mr. WALSH. Yes. Senator MALONE. Again I want to say for the record—and I have known some of you fellows by reputation, if not too well personally, for a long time-this is in no wise a criticism of you personally. It has been mystifying to me how a good American citizen can operate to hold his job under this Government and still face the taxpayer. I think all of you are doing well as far as I know. But there is a setup here beyond your control, and I do think you have some responsibility in it to make proper recommendations to your superiors. Certainly we will try to do it through the committee. I will look forward to receiving the information that has been described and requested. If any of you are charged with delivering that material to us, and are in any wise in doubt as to just what is required, get in touch with the staff or with me, and we will clear it up. you I thank you very kindly. I am sorry we had to encroach on your Saturday. (Thereupon, at 2: 50 p. m., the hearing was recessed to reconvene at 10 a. m., December 22, 1953.) STOCKPILE AND ACCESSIBILITY OF STRATEGIC AND CRITICAL MATERIALS TO THE UNITED STATES IN TIME OF WAR TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1953 UNITED STATES SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON MINERALS, MATERIALS AND INTERIOR AND INSULAR AFFAIRS, The subcommittee met, pursuant to recess, at 10 a. m., in the committee room, 224 Senate Office Building, Washington D. C., Senator George W. Malone, Nevada (chairman of the subcommitee) presiding. Present also: Jerome S. Adlerman, counsel to the subcommittee; Thomas F. Flynn, Jr., subcommittee assistant counsel, and George B. Holderer, committee engineer; Richard G. Sinclair, subcommittee accountant. Senator MALONE. The committee will be in order. General Wedemeyer, we are mighty glad to have you here today. We invited you because we think-and I am speaking for the entire subcommittee and the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs when I say that you are one of the outstanding generals of World War II, and you are not only one of the outstanding military men of the Nation, but one of its outstanding citizens, if I may say so. The Senate passed Resolution 143 before adjournment and instructed the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs or any duly authorized subcommittee thereof to make a full and complete investigation and study of the accessibility of critical raw materials to the United States during the time of war, and second, to study and recommend methods of encouraging developments to assure the availability of supplies of such critical raw materials adequate for the expanding economy and the security of the United States and to report its findings at the earliest possible date. The Mineral, Material and Fuels Economic Subcommittee was designated to make this investigation and report. General, we have had before this committee in the last 4 months some of the outstanding experts in their particular fields of producing critical and strategic materials. For example, we have had people from the petroleum industry as well as some of the outstanding engineers and experts representing the titanium, uranium, lead, zinc, tungsten, and mercury fields. For example, testimony has been given that the new metal, titanium, that you and I have discussed, will without a doubt materially advance our aircraft construction techniques when it is available in sufficient quantity. In the con 517 struction of military and commercial planes its lightness will add to pay loads and its heat-resisting qualities and durability will permit greater speeds and higher altitudes. We have had the actual producers, the mining engineers and the people directly associated in these particular businessess. We have followed that procedure. You know as a general in the Army, and now in private business, that men spend their lives specializing in certain fields. From the experience and observations that I have had in the engineering business, you not only have difficulty becoming proficient in a profession, such as engineering, law or some other profession, but you have difficulty in becoming an expert in one particular field of those professions. So we have invited you to testify here because I particularly have watched your career and I believe you to be one of the outstanding military strategists in the world today. So, General, if you would identify yourself for the record and do not be modest about it, because we would like to have your military experience as a part of the record, you may proceed in your own way. You understand, too, that anything you say here will be in an impromptu and unofficial way of holding hearings for the very reason that it is the facts we want. After you have identified yourself, General, if you have any statement to make, you may make your statement in your own way, or I will ask you a few questions. Will you go ahead now, and identify yourself for the purposes of the record. STATEMENT OF LT. GEN. ALBERT C. WEDEMEYER, UNITED STATES ARMY (RETIRED) General WEDEMEYER. My name is A. C. Wedemeyer. I am retired from the United States Army after 32 years of service. I graduated from West Point in June 1919, and did not serve in World War I inasmuch as I had entered West Point in 1916 and was not graduated until June 1919. My military service included the following tours of duty: 5 years in the Philippines, 4 years in China, 1 year in India-Burma, and about 3 years in Western Europe. My military education included not only West Point, but the usual service schools, the Infantry School, Fort Benning, Ga., the Artillery School, Fort Sill, Okla., the General Staff School, Fort Leavenworth, Kans., and from the last-named institution I was sent to Germany in 1936 as a student at the German War College for the 2 year course, from. 1936 to 1938. After graduating I returned to the Infantry School at Fort Benning as an instructor and then was detailed to the General Staff in the War Department, Washington, where I served in the war planning group. I accompanied the Chief of Staff of the Army, General Marshall, to the world conferences up to the time 1943 when I was sent to serve in the field. I served a year in India as chief of staff to Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, Allied commander, of the Southeast Asian Command. When General Stillwell was relieved in September 1944, I was assigned to replace him as theater commander in China. I served in that capacity from 1944 to 1946, when I returned to this country and was given various field assignments. I served as commander of the Second Army, and then as Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army in charge of strategic plans and combat operations. In September 1949 I was assigned as commander of the Sixth Army and retired in July 1951. Presently I am in industry serving as vice president and director of AFCO Manufacturing Corp. with offices in New York City. Senator MALONE. What was your rank when you retired from the Army? General WEDEMEYER. Lieutenant general, sir. Senator MALONE. I read excerpts from Senate Resolution 143, which instructs this committee not only to determine the availability of these critical materials-and you are entirely familiar with the difficulty we had in securing these materials for war purposes and civilian uses in wartime. No one on the committee-I think I am speaking for the entire committee, and certainly I am not-is a military strategist. I did think that you were in World War I. It is for that reason General we have invited you here to give us your expert opinion on matters such as requirements, and our ability in the event of an all-out war to keep our lines of communications open, especially our sealanes. That was my war. While I had a battery of field artillery there, I was not to determine what they did, and had nothing to do with stratI think that is the usual experience of men in the armed services, especially men who do not make it a career, but are in there to help win the fight and get out. So I want to ask you a general question to get into the subject. Naturally with all the evidence that the committee has at its disposal, it is not difficult to locate critical materials, but it is difficult to determine what lines of transportation we can keep open in wartime, especially now since the invention of very formidable weapons of offense and defense, and only experts such as yourself can weigh their effect, but what of these materials and from what areas could in general they be made available to the United States in case of an all-out world war IV, if we call world war III the Korean unpleasantness. And as I have said before, when you kill thirty-five or forty thousand boys and maim 150,000, if it is not a war, it will do until one comes along. So just referring to world war IV and our strategy leading up to it, could you give us in general what you believe we will have to do if and when that conflict comes, and it is an all-out war? General WEDEMEYER. You want me to proceed now without specific questions? Senator MALONE. Go right ahead. If any questions occur to us, we will ask them. General WEDEMEYER. You can interject at any time. Senator MALONE. I appreciate that. We really appreciate having you here. It is not a matter of this committee subpenaing anybody. I have talked to you before. We just look upon you as one of our advisers. General WEDEMEYER. In the first instance, the words "strategy" and "tactics" are used a great deal, and undoubtedly we will use those words in the course of our discussion here this morning. I would like therefore to give at least my own definition of "strategy" and "tactics" so that everybody present will understand what I mean when I use the word "strategy" or "tactics" in the course of my testimony. 39888-54-pt. 2—34 |