Paper War

Marching up Capitol Hill last week, Army Chief of Staff Maxwell Taylor appeared before a House Armed Services subcommittee to support the Administration's new program requiring six months' active-duty training for all National Guard recruits after April 1. Though he applied none of the frankness of Defense Secretary Charles E. Wilson, who had allowed that the Guard was a draft-dodging business during the Korean war (TIME, Feb. 11), Paratrooper Taylor nevertheless politely cited evidence to prove the point that Engine Charlie was trying to make when he stirred up the hornets: the National Guard is not as good as it ought to be.

In tests last year of National Guardsmen in summer camp and Army recruits completing eight weeks' basic training, 25,000 Guardsmen drawn from all 27 Guard divisions were ranged against 7,000 Army recruits in such soldierly accomplishments as scouting and patrolling, defense against armor and the use of the gas mask. Guardsmen outmaneuvered the Army in dismounted drill, a Guard specialty, and night training (in which neither group scored high). But overall, 84% of the Army recruits passed the tests satisfactorily, compared to 56.5% of the Guardsmen. The inference: Guard recruits would benefit from six months' active-duty training.

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