Weakened Defense

"Mr. Chairman," cried Georgia's plain-spoken Carl ("Swamp Fox") Vinson, "this is the first time in my 44 years as a member of Congress, 25 years as chairman of committees presenting defense legislation, that I have seen a matter involving our national security become a subject of partisan politics."

Crafty Carl Vinson was stretching things a bit--and he was enjoying every minute of the partisanship. As chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Democrat Vinson had given the White House such a rough time during hearings on President Eisenhower's defense reorganization bill that the bill voted out of his committee seemed a magnanimous, bipartisan bow to the President's wishes--and the President indeed bowed gratefully in return. Then, as the bill headed for the House floor, Ike had some deep reservations (TIME, June 9) and fired them off with an unaccustomed roar.

The bill stipulated that 1) the Defense Secretary's authority must flow through the service secretaries--"legalized bottleneck," said the President; 2) Congress could, in effect, veto Pentagon decisions to transfer major combat functions of the services--''endorsement of duplication and standpattism," said Ike; and 3) each member of the Joint Chiefs and each service secretary had license to deal with Congress "on his own initiative" --"legalized insubordination" to the Commander-in-Chief.

Heavy Footfall. Ike's belated blast came as a virtual order to amend, and last week, as the House armed itself for debate, House Republican Leader Martin dutifully carried out the orders with the reluctant help of Illinois' Les Arends. ranking Republican member of Vinson's committee. Joe Martin took one more step: he called a G.O.P. caucus and laid out the party line, reported afterward that 95% of the Republicans would go along with the amendments.

The call on the Democratic party line brought Speaker Sam Rayburn out fast. Mr. Sam hurriedly rounded up the Democrats. He even took to the well of the House to enjoin one Democrat from going over to the G.O.P. side, exchanging finger-waggling arguments with Missouri's Democratic Clarence Cannon, a longtime rival of Carl Vinson's, who was voting with the Republicans on one amendment.

Squashed Amendments. In two days of debate, only a few Democrats rose to tackle the real meaning of the amendments in the light of global necessity. One was Texas' George Mahon, chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and the House's ablest military specialist. While his fellow Democrats sat silent, Mahon spoke of his deep friendship for Vinson, then, with all the emotion he could muster, told why he was aligning himself with the Republicans: "I am not going to rebuff the President on this issue. I do not think it would be good statesmanship or good politics." When he finished, the Republicans, 100 strong, rose to give him an ovation.

With the votes splitting down the aisle, the Democrats squashed the amendments one by one. At length, there was nothing else to do but vote" on the committee's bill itself, and it passed, 402 to 1 (the loner: Ohio's Republican Cliff Clevenger). Said Joe Martin, who is satisfied that the Democrats' action will one day haunt them: "What the hell, the people don't understand these amendments but they understand that the President wanted them. This is a real issue."

There was an outside chance that the Democratic bosses of the Senate, agreeing with Joe Martin, would work toward a compromise when the bill moves over to the upper house this week.

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