The Air View

After General Collins came lean, trim, Air Force General Hoyt Vandenberg, boyish-looking for a man of 52. Chairman Russell went quickly to an airman's chief concern. Had Vandenberg concurred in the J.C.S. opposition to MacArthur's proposal to bomb across the Yalu? "Yes sir," said Vandenberg.

What were his reasons? Said Vandenberg: "While I was and am today against bombing across the Yalu, it does not mean by any stretch of the imagination that I might not be for it tomorrow, a month from now, or six months from now .. . Hitting across the Yalu, we could destroy or lay waste to all of Manchuria and the principal cities of China if we utilized the full power of the U.S. Air Force . . . But the effect on the U.S. Air Force . . . would fix it so that, should we have to operate in any other area with full power ... we would not be able to." His Air Force had to be ready to strike back at Russia, he said. In the meantime, "In my opinion, we cannot afford to ... peck at the periphery as long as we have a shoestring air force."

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