JULY-AUGUST 1972 AIR U N I VE R S I T Y THE PROFESSIONAL JOURNALreview OF THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE T he Obligation To Ser ve............................................................................................................ 2 Dr. Curtis W. Tarr Rapping with Ch a ppie........................................................................................................................ 12 Brig. Gen. Daniel James, Jr., USAF T he Oppo sit e Number........................................................................................................................ 22 Maj. Gen. Edward G. Lansdale, USAF (Ret) Winners and Losers: A Conceptual Barrier in Our Strategic Thinking . 33 Dr. Ralph E. Strauch Quo Vadis?—The Nixon Doctrine and Air Power...................................................... 45 Col. Robert L. Gleason, USAF Military Affairs Abroad T he Latin American Mil it a r y : P ositive Roles.......................................................... 57 Maj. Michael A. Nelson, USAF Air Force Review USAF Area Specia l ist Program........................................................................................... 65 Maj. James S. Austin, Jr., USAF Maj. Jimmy Mitchell, USAF In My Opinion W ho’s Listening? W ho’s Talking? ............................................................................... 72 Col. William R. Edgar, USAF M il it a r y Principles and Flexibilities: A R esponsive Policy for Change . 76 Lt. Col. Russell A. Turner II, USAF Books and Ideas T he Technological War....................................................................................................... 81 Col. Francis X. Kane, USAF (Ret) T he Contributors..............................' ............................................................................................ 87 the cover Address manuscript* to Editor, Air University In recent years the world has seen much question* Review Division. Bldg 1211, Maxwell AFB, AL ing, challenging, and overthrowing of traditional 36112. Printed by Government Printing Office. authority. In this issue. Dr. Curtis W. Tarr Address subscription* to Superintendent of replies to five questions frequently asked him Documents, GPO, Washington DC 20402: yearly by young people; Brigadier General Daniel S4-50 domestic, 15.75 foreign; single copy 75<. ("Chappie") James, Jr., fielding questions at Air Command and Staff College, considers chal­ lenges from within and outside the military; and Major General Edward G. Lansdale, USAF (Ret), tell* of insurgents and how to counter them. Vol. XXIII No. 5 JULTAUCUST 1972 Our cover reflects one aspect of the challenge. k THE OBLIGATION TO SERVE Dr . C urtis W. T arr Ed POPULAR ballad promises us that “the times they are a-changin’.” All of us who work with young people today realize that to a large extent this younger generation, to recall a phrase from Thoreau, oftenA hears and steps to the beat of a different drummer. Old reasons no longer justify traditional action. Young people want us to think anew before we act as of old. For that reason, their questions serve to provoke us to do the mental exercise we should have gone through long ago. Many officers and noncommissioned officers, forced to do this thinking, have found that they arrive at a new rationale to support what needs doing. At other times they have learned that tradition no longer can be justified. This experience suggests a change that benefits all of us, young and old alike. During my two years as Director of Selective Serv ice, I have met with young people all over the world, on campuses and in communities as well as on military posts, at sea, and in combat areas. I have been stimulated by their thoughtful questions. I have also learned that a careful answer may not satisfy their own mental reservations, but it will convince them that I am willing to reason with them, something they expect few of my age to do. Five questions have come up repeatedly in The other view about the prospect of peace our conversations. My experience is that young is more cynical. But we should disarm any­ Americans, whether they be in the service or way, some youth assert. If the world is moving in civilian life, all have some of the same toward nuclear suicide, then at least we should doubts; they puzzle over many of the same not contribute to it. issues. Sharing these questions and my replies To answer these pleas for disarmament, with men and women of the Air Force who let us first consider our relations with the work with youth may prompt other original Soviet Union, the world’s other superpower. thoughts that will be helpful in setting aside Our present difficulties with the Soviet Union the anxieties of rapidly changing times. are rooted in the last days of World War II, when Soviet satellite nations were established in Poland and Romania, contrary to the Why do we need armed forces? Yalta agreements, and a puppet state was How well I remember the bright young girl created in East Germany in violation of the who asked this question. She was one of three Potsdam declarations.1 We have been suspi­ hundred youth who came to our building in cious of the U.S.S.R. ever since. Winston Washington to protest a continuing war. Churchill spoke for many when, in 1949, I shall not forget the idealism she expressed he judged that only the possession of the fully in her face or the sincerity with which atomic bomb by the United States prevented she talked. a Red Army sweep to the English Channel. It is not sufficient for us to say that men It is evident to me that since 1945 the have always fought wars. The weapons of United States has impressed the Soviets best terror created in this century and the manner when we had ready a force to direct against in which rockets and jet planes have com­ them. For example, the Truman Doctrine in pressed distances make war all the less toler­ 1947 provided military and economic assist­ able. We must look more deeply for a reason ance to Greece and thereby thwarted a Soviet- to maintain armed might than merely to rely inspired coup. The Berlin Airlift in the follow­ on the traditions of the past. ing year brought relief to that beleaguered Young people offer two views on this sub­ city, persuading the Soviets to lift the blockade ject. First, they argue that the people of the many months later. Blunt force and the threat world are rapidly learning to live in peace. of nuclear war caused the Soviets to withdraw The only real necessity, they allege, is for the their nuclear missiles from Cuba in the fall United States forthrightly to disarm, since it of 1962. is our nation that has generated most of the Conversely, the absence of force has invited hostility anyway. They cite as evidences of Soviet domination. The U.S.S.R. moved progress the Berlin agreement of last year, the swiftly in Eastern Europe after World War continuing Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, II, following the rapid demobilization of our the nuclear test-ban treaty of the Kennedy military forces. In 1948 the Soviets inspired years, or perhaps President Nixon’s recent a coup in Czechoslovakia that prevented fur­ trip to China. We have made encouraging ther expressions of freedom there. Even more strides, these young people claim. Have we militant was the suppression of Hungary in not practically reached the day when men can 1956, after that nation gave evidence of set war aside? seeking independence from the Soviet Union 3 4 AIR UNIVERSITY REVIEW and the Eastern European bloc of nations. the Chinese Communists seem willing to join In August of 1968, several hundred thousand the world community, but with the under­ Soviet troops, together with the armored standing that they help shape that community, columns of the Red Army, moved into create its rules, and establish its new relation­ Czechoslovakia, again to suppress the desire ships. Obviously the new world they are will­ for freedom from Soviet domination. ing to create would encourage their growing Apparently, the Soviet leaders fear the influence.3 Whether it will be shaped to our prospect of losing control over the people of advantage as well depends upon the degree the Soviet Union.2 This control rests upon to which we are strong enough to assert the proposition that Communism, led by the ourselves. Soviets, inevitably will control the future of The Chinese Communists in the past have men everywhere. If that proposition proves provoked conflict among their rivals, thus to be a myth in the months and years ahead, frustrating coalitions that might be formed then absolute control over the U.S.S.R. may against them. They haye played upon internal become impossible. Only expanding Soviet strife, upon the tensions that develop among domination will confirm the philosophy of the races, political groups, economic factions. To Kremlin’s leaders. do so, they have trained guerrilla cadres for Against this background, it appears to me use wherever opportunity presented the chance that progress toward stable relations with the to strike. These efforts seek out places of weak­ Soviet Union will come only when we and ness rather than strength. They have been our Western allies negotiate from a position antagonistic to our national aspirations in the of reasonable strength. We want very much past, and they may be so in the years ahead. to negotiate, to work toward political arrange­ That will depend upon our continuing nego­ ments that will encourage peace, but we must tiations that now, thankfully, have begun. be realistic enough to seek to do this in Have we not practically