Page 6 - LIFE MAGAZINE OCTOBER 6 - 1961

E®nH©RHAEL©

FAIR PLAY FOR picture all U.S. military men as political jugheads or dan-

gerous firebrands.
Senator Fulbright wants to revise the whole indoctrination
GEN. WALKER program on the ground that most officers lack the necessary
"balance of judgment" for so delicate a business. They are
too prone to "right-wing radicalism," says Fulbright. He
particularly abhors their involvement in the various anti-
Communist crusades and educational movements which have
been spreading in the U.S. for the past few years.
TgyEthcea5een°tfagGoen?esrfan[cy£:[£#n±:::e[:#tbhaeds[5r:a!:hoafnad£:]€ This is as phony a worry as could well be added to the
Communist fervor, there are lessons in it for civilians too. burdens of an anxious republic. West Point and Annapolis
Major General Edwin A. Walker is a first-class soldier who graduates have had, by and large, a sounder education in
won many battle citations in World War 11 and Korea, com- American political principles than most college graduates,
manded the Little Rock "invasion" with firmness and tact, especially in the absolute primacy of political over military
and has made the 24th Infantry one of the best U.S. divisions authority. There are "ri-ght-wing radicals" in the Army as
in Europe. He also has a consuming concern about the Com- out of it; but the surest way to make more of them is to
munist danger which made him give perfervid and occasional- impute an affinity for any such "ism" to officers in general,
ly wild lectures on Communism to his troops. Lectures on or to curb their efficiency as teachers on that false ground.
Communism have been part of an indoctrination ("pro-blue") Secretary MCNamara, to his credit, has ably defended his
program prescribed by the Pentagon since 1958. In some of his present policy before a committee of Congress: he will con-
lectures Walker worked himself up about the political situa- tinue the anti-Communist indoctrination program and he will
tion back home, calling names and telling the Gls how to vote. continue to forbid military speakers to take partisan stands
Last April an account of a January 1960 lecture appeared on U.S. domestic affairs or to advocate policies in conflict
in Oversc¢s W/eek/);, a sex-and-scuttlebutt sheet for Gls with with the government's. That is surely all the curb we need on
which Walker (and most European brass) has had a long- men like Walker, who already know all about civilian control.
standing feud. The weekly had postponed the story for 15
months. In December a reporter named Naujocks was barred
of Pentagon directives, should we not exercise some
from the 24th's area for spreading the rumor that Walker was AD what about controlling civilians? Being happily free
off his rocker-a charge for which Army doctors found no measure of self-restraint? Overseczs Week/); obviously needs
warrant (and which a German court found slanderous only more of it. Senator Fulbright could use more when tempted
last week). When it failed to get the bar on Naujocks lifted, to cast suspicion on the political trustworthiness of the whole
the Overscczs Jyeck/t,' let Walker have it with the old lecture military. We could also hope that a real "right-wing radi-
story. Whereupon the publicity-conscious Pentagon went into cal" like Senator Thurmond, Fulbright's chief opponent on
a flap. Before even completing an investigation, it relieved this issue, can temper his belief that Communism, Socialism
Walker of his command and transferred him to a colonel.s and welfare-state liberalism are by nature in league and to
desk in Heidelberg. As Hanson Baldwin has reported in the be fought as one.
New York 7l.mcs, even the many officers who disagree with Civilians are now launching their own anti-Communist
Walker's lecture style resent the Pentagon's capricious and indoctrination programs on each other. Most of them are
mistrustful treatment of one of the Army's very best men. healthy in motive and their purpose, to spread knowledge of
Walker was undoubtedly offside in giving a highly partisan Communism, is overdue (LIFE will shortly devote a series of
twist to his anti-Communist lectures. The Army's investiga- articles to this cause). The chief danger, which self-restraint
tion eventually earned him a well-deserved "oral admoni- can minimize, is that the Communist issue may invade and
tion" from his superiors. But meanwhile he has got entan- poison that large area of domestic issues where Americans
gled in law suits, the Army needs but is not getting his best have legitimate differences with each other~differences whose
services and he has become ammunition in a campaign to proper resolution is through honest debate.

THE WISE WAY is that the chief responsibility of a government is to secure
the maximum help from abroad, with lesser responsibility
to mobilize its own resources."
The essentials for poor nations to escape their poverty are,
TO WEALTH as Garner sees them: 1) law and order-government which

can govern; honest and effective public administration; 2)
financial stability ("I have seen inflation upset government,
take the bread out of the mouths of workers.'); 3) plans fo[.
economic growth based on sensible "balance among agricul-
S%En:iatr{e°s:Sjr'::sS::tcees°sfar8yref:trewxet::tnh:]sta:;paonodr.a*i;: ture, industry, transport, power, communications, with such
That's the question Robert L. Garner, 67, tackled in a vale- provisions for housing, education and medical services as
dictory at Vienna after 14 years on the World Bank, the last resources permit." Finally, feudal forms of society, "with
five as president of the International Finance Corp. His an- wealth and power in the hands of a few . . . must disappear
swer: many nations are to blame for their o\vn poverty be- if there is to be economic progress in the modern sense."
cause they refuse to organize pi.operly. Garner puts in an uncommon plug for private enterprise:
Capital, says Garner. isn't really the problem: "Money nations should "give the greatest scope to private initiative
alone accomplishes nothing .... If it is applied to uneco- and capital in all fields which are not necessarily in the public
nomic purposes, or if good projects are poorly planned and sector .... An immense reservoir of private capital exists
executed, the results wi[[ be minus, not plus." throughout the world which can be tapped" if such barriers
Garner is troubled by "the insidious consequences of too as the threat of confiscation (c.g. as in Cuba) are removed.
great reliance on foreign aid . . . where the obvious attitude A wise speech.

4