Ford Press Releases, January - April 1966: 12130682

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CONGRESSMAN
GERALD R. FORD
HOUSE REPUBLICAN LEADER
FOR RELEASE ON RECEIPT-APRIL 21. 196
STATEMENT BY HOUSE MINORITY LlW>ER GERALD R. FORD, ll-MICHIGAN
NEWS
RELEASE
A week ago, in reiterating that the Republican minority in the House had given
the President every penny he has asked for defense purposes, I raised a question of
serious shortages and inadequate advance planning by the civilian managers in the
Penatagon which, according to widely publicized reports by reliable and patriotic
Americans close to the scene, have been and still are hampering theatepped•up level
of combat operations in Vietnam.
These reports, coincident with serious internal disturbances in that troubled
country, came as something of a surpriee to me, to a great many members of the
Congress,of both parties, as well as to the millions of Americans we are here to
represent. We had been told 1n October 1963, by Secretary of Jefense McNamara,
that most Americaas would be out of South Vietnam by the end of 1965. We had been
assured, again by Mr. McNamara early last year that neither more combat troops nor
more money would be needed in South Vietnam. Late last year, the Defense Secretary
returned from a personal inspection of the aituatioa there to say, ''We have stopped
losing the war!" And we have been told ever since that the situation was improving
day by day.
So it produced something of a sonic shock wave when suddenly the front pages of
the newspapers and the radio and television newscasts were full of reports of
internal unrest, attacks on Americana, and curtailment of combat operations against
the Communist enemy. These were variously attributed to supply tieups, shortages
of essential equipment, and civil disturbances in South Vietnam. Evidence mounted,
and continues to mount, that the Pentagon planners were not adequately prepared to
cope with the kind of limited, non-nuclear type of military operation for which
they have supposedly been reorganizing since the end of the Eisenhower adminiatra-
tion, with much fanfare about modern management methods.
When I raised the question of mismanagement, Mr. McNamara quickly--perhaps too
quickly--sought to smother it by sheer weight of computer-like statistics. He
called a quickie press conference that afternoon and personally declassified large
areas of secret information about u. s. bomb loads and backlogs. This information
vas presumably classified on the grounds of national security and potential value
to the enemy. It was not the first time he has removed the "secret" label when
criticism of tbe Pentagon came too close for comfort.
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