Word: civilianizes
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...first drafted on white paper, reprinted on buff paper when sent out to field commands for comment. By the time they reach the J.C.S., they have "gone green." If the Chiefs accept them, they are put in a red-striped folder and sent on to the Pentagon's civilian leaders as official J.C.S. recommendations. If the Chiefs reject a paper, it "goes purple." When the Chiefs split-as they often do-each one must write a report specifically explaining his position to McNamara; the Secretary has outlawed "waffling," a once-favored J.C.S. technique of concealing disagreement behind vague language...
...matter what the Joint Chiefs of Staff may propose, it remains up to their civilian superiors to dispose. More often than not, the J.C.S. recommendations are accepted. Thus, when Communist PT boats attacked U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin last summer, McNamara called the Chiefs into his office, asked them how the U.S. should reply. The opinion was unanimous: to launch air attacks against North Vietnamese bases. McNamara relayed that word to the President, who summoned the Chiefs to a White House session, carefully questioned each about his views-and followed the prescription to the letter...
Among the Issues. But the nation's military and civilian leaders also have some outstanding differences. The military budget is always a subject for argument. Late last fall, the Chiefs sent their spending proposals for fiscal...
Without the Bellyaching. Once the civilian decision is made, McNamara insists that his military leaders fall into line and support-at least in public-his policies. He watches the Chiefs with a hawk's eye, sends civilian aides to listen in when the J.C.S. members appear in closed sessions before congressional committees, reads carefully the transcripts of their testimony...
...some outsiders, particularly on Capitol Hill, McNamara's dominance over the J.C.S. seems a cause for concern. Where once they worried that the J.C.S. might become so powerful as to be a sort of "Prussian General Staff," they now fret lest the Chiefs become too subservient to the civilians. But the fact remains that under McNamara the nation's military power has grown as never before-with less waste of money and with less energy expended in futile interservice and military-civilian fights. McNamara's new team of military managers seems likely to flourish in that fashion...