The B36 Controversy
Two years ago the American Army, Navy and Air Force were united under a single Ministry of Defence. So far from producing, as it was hoped, harmonious co-operation between the three arms, this step has led to continuous bickering, which in the past fortnight has blown up into an acrimonious public debate about the funda- mentals of American defence policy. It is in the Navy that the sense of grievance is most acute—how acute may be judged from the fact that, to ensure the Navy's case a public hearing, a senior naval officer has risked court-martial by disclosing to the Press the text of a confidential letter on the subject of naval morale addressed to the Secretary of the Navy. This calculated indiscretion was responsible for the evidence now being heard before the Armed Services Committee of Congress. So far the argument has centred round the value of the Air Force's B36 strategic bombers. The Air Force maintains that these giant planes, taking off from a land base, could deliver atomic bombs at enemy targets. The Navy's contention is that these bombers are "slow, expensive and vulnerable "—vulner- able to guided missiles and to the latest fighters. It is suggested that the Navy's own jet fighters (Banshees), and their newest night-fighters (Corsairs and Douglas Skynights) could account for the B36 without difficulty, and that Russian jet fighters are probably not much less effective. But behind this particular controversy lies a more pro- found unrest, based on the Navy's belief that as a result of unification its functions are being subordinated to those of the Army and Air Force. There was bitter resentment when this spring work was stopped on the giant carrier 'United States,' which was intended as a mobile base for long-range bombers. Inter-service disputes of this sort arc nothing new, and certainly not peculiar to America ; every new war poses as many problems as it solves. It is probably better that the current dispute should be aired in public, rather than left tc ferment behind locked doors with only (according to American custom) a few excitable columnists loOking through the keyhole.
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