MIA > Archive > Draper > Militarization
From Labor Action, Vol. 14 No. 3, 16 January 1950, p. 2.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Marxists’ Internet Archive.
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This is one of a series of articles on the militarization of American government and life, based on the findings of a committee of nationally known liberals. This committee, organized as the National Council Against Conscription, in February of this year published the booklet New Evidence of the Militarization of America. (A previous booklet, entitled The Militarization of America, had been published in January 1948.) All the information and quotations used in the present series of articles comes from the first-named booklet. The NCAC publications are sponsored by a group including: Pearl Buck, Louis Bromfield, Albert Einstein. Victor Reuther, President James G. Patton of the National Farmers Union, Prof. P.A. Sorokin of Harvard, former Secretary of Interior Ray Lyman Wilbur, President W.S. Townsend of the CIO Transport Service Employees, President C.S. Johnson of Fisk University, President W.J. Millor, S.J., of the University of Detroit, and many other prominent individuals. |
The following section of the pamphlet New Evidence on the Militarization of America, gives a detailed picture of U.S. missionary activities in far-flung regions of the world – missionary work which teaches nothing but the religion of warfare. The data given are as of the time of the booklet’s publication, February 1949, and while there have no doubt been changes in specific cases since that time, the general picture has not changed. – Ed.
The United States continues to maintain military missions in foreign countries as a part of our military emphasis in foreign policy.
One of the largest missions is in Greece, where there are 214 officers and 260 enlisted men. and an additional 9.478 civilians supervised by the U.S. Army Engineer Corps. [N.Y. Times, Oct. 16. 1948]. The American military mission under General Van Fleet “is assisting in the campaign of active warfare.” There are “teams of officers and men with each Greek Corps and division and they advise the local commanders on operations. Theoretically they have no command or authority but their advice is a powerful inducement.” [Ibid., June 20, 1948]
In Turkey there are 245 officers and men who are engaged in giving specialized training to the Turkish army [Ibid., Aug. 7, 1948], The U.S. army mission to Turkey not only used the original appropriation of $100 million authorized by Congress, but announced that it had poured into Turkey close to a billion dollars in military aid.
This additional military aid, unauthorized by Congress, was managed by drawing upon the “vast reserves of arms, munitions, and supplies” of the American military establishment, writing it off “at about a dime on the dollar” as surplus goods, and sending it to Turkey [Ibid., Aug. 10, 1948]. This was done at a time when the army and navy were asking Congress for more funds for weapons and equipment.
That this additional aid to Turkey was not the original intent of Congress must be obvious not only from the limit in the act placed on military aid to Turkey, but also from the fact that a military-sponsored bill, S 226, which was introduced by Senator Gurney in the 80th Congress to authorize the president “notwithstanding the provisions of any other law ... to sell, lend or give naval ordnance material to foreign governments.” failed of passage.
In China there were until recently several United States military advisory groups. A group of U.S. air force pilots who were killed in a crash in China were “a part of a group belonging to the Chinese air forces,” official sources said, according to a report in the September 16. 1948, New York Times.
The navy has also been active in foreign policy missions. It strengthened its Mediterranean fleet with combat-equipped marines and maintains a task force of full wartime strength in the waters off Greece, Turkey and Italy. [Rochester Times Union, Jan. 19, 1948]
The navy gave four large modern submarines to Turkey and six additional ones to Greece. Both nations have received other naval vessels and “approximately 350 officers and men of the Turkish navy are in the United States ... or training preparatory to accepting delivery of several (additional) naval vessels,” the January 10. 1948, New York Times reported.
The navy not only patrols the Mediterranean but has sent ships to Singapore and the Far East on a “goodwill” visit, to Norway and Denmark, and to other nations.
That all these naval activities are a part of the navy’s role in foreign policy is seen from a statement by Admiral Radford, vice-chief of naval operations. Stating that the navy had become a “precision instrument of diplomacy.” he claimed that by “showing the flag” and by a.“display of sea power” the navy can keep the peace in any part of the world [N.Y. Times, July 11, 1948].
Similarly, Secretary of the Navy Sullivan claims that United States naval vessels in foreign waters are “a stabilizing force.” [Ibid., Oct. 9, 1948]
The air force has conducted training operations over Western Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa, the Mediterranean coasts, as well as maintaining ferrying operations at Iceland, the Azores and Labrador. The air force, after long negotiations with a reluctant Portuguese government, announced the signing of an air agreement for a lease by the United States of an airport in the Azores. The air force is also operating the wartime air bases near Tripoli in Libya and has inaugurated B-29 flights to Saudi Arabia, the nearest U.S.-held base to Southern Russia.
Likewise, in an independent Philippines, the air force is constructing a permanent air base on a military reservation larger than the island of Guam. In the North Atlantic the U.S. has been engaged in “delicate diplomatic negotiations ... over the use of air bases in both Iceland and Greenland” (N.Y. Times, Sept. 25, 1948) where the governments do not want to jeopardize their lands by joining forces openly with one of the two major powers.
The military are also active in U.S.-Canadian relationships. Secretary Forrestal and the Canadian minister of defense, after secret joint military talks in August 1948, pledged continued military cooperation. A major-general, Robert Walsh, has been appointed by President Truman to serve as a member of the Permanent Board of Defense of the United States and Canada. There is also a joint Mexican-U.S. Defense Commission on which General Walsh also serves.
(Next: U.S. Aid to Latin American Militarism)
Last updated on 25 February 2023