The Brass Ring

Citizens concerned about the race between growing Russian and U.S. air power have in the last fortnight been taken for a dizzying ride on the public-relations merry-go-round. Brass rings:

P: The Air Force, through the Defense Department, released a terse statement stressing Russian progress in heavy and medium jet bombers (one of them comparable to the eight-jet B-52 the U.S. is now building). The statement concluded: "This knowledge is evidence of the modern technology of the Soviet aircraft industry and the advances which are being made by them."

P: Georgia's wise old Senator Walter George growled that the statement "may be intended to have some influence on the Senate's consideration of the military budget."

P: Senator Stuart Symington, onetime Air Force Secretary and longtime foe of Eisenhower defense budget policy, roared that the U.S. "may have lost control of the air" to Russia.

P: Next day, in his press conference, Commander in Chief Eisenhower sharply answered Symington. Said the President: "To say that we have lost in a twinkling all of this great technical development and technical excellence, as well as the number in our total aircraft, is just not true."

P: The same day Brigadier General W. M. Burgess, Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence for the Continental Air Defense Command, was quoted in a speech as saying that Russia has planes as good as the U.S. Air Force, and more of them.

P: Next day his boss, Air Force Chief of Staff Nathan Twining, stated Burgess "did not tell the truth." Twining's appraisal: "I am confident we are ahead today."

P: In subsequent speeches, made almost simultaneously across the nation, General Alfred M. Gruenther, Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, said that "Russia is quite a long way behind"; Tactical Air Commander General O. P. Weyland said that his forces are "one step ahead"; Air Force Secretary Harold E. Talbott said that the U.S. program is "just about right."

P: In Boston Lieut. General Thomas S. Power, head of the Air Force Research and Development Command, played it safe. He had a prepared speech, cleared by the Pentagon, which said that Russia has "the world's largest air force" and "resources in manpower and material we could not possibly match." But when he rose to speak, he toned it down to: the Russians have "a large air force," and "the Soviets have impressive resources in manpower and material."

P: Asked why he had released the original statement on growing Russian airpower, Secretary Talbott said: "I thought the American people should know the facts."

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