Word: pentagons
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...most hostile report of all concerned one of the oldest controversies of McNamara's Pentagon tenure: his 1961 cutback on funds for big bombers and his subsequent decision to replace them in the next ten years with the FB-111, a flashy (Mach 2.5) modified fighter...
...House Armed Services subcommittee's report last week accused Mc-Namara of "significantly misrepresenting" the case for the FB-111 in his own testimony, of applying "institutional constraints" on other Pentagon witnesses so they would hew to the Mc-Namara line, and of generally scorning Capitol Hill advice to such a point that the Congress has been forced into "a passive role of supine acquiesence" to U.S. defense policies...
...Shockingly Distorted." Headed by Louisiana Democrat F. Edward Hebert, a hard-knuckled investigative veteran, the subcommittee accused McNamara of being a Pentagon tyrant who uses the word "we" in his testimony only "to hide the essential singularity of the decision-making process in the Department of Defense." Said the report: "The subcommittee was shocked to dis cover that the proposal to phase out of the SAC inventory all B58 aircraft was, as best it could ascertain, an action solely recommended and supported by the office of the Secretary of Defense and one neither recommended nor truly supported...
McNamara's troubles are partly a matter of manner. Though he is more gracious in testifying than he once was, and has even taken to asking key congressional military committeemen to the Pentagon for briefing breakfasts, the Secretary has consistently all but ignored the Armed Services Committees of both houses when it comes to making crucial military decisions. As House Minority Whip Leslie Arends protested last week: "Secretary McNamara seldom asks advice, and listens only when he asks. I am constrained to ask: 'Upon what meat does this, our Caesar, feed that he is grown so great...
...have been very tentative in their attacks. Though armed with Atoll missiles, a Communist version of the heat-seeking Sidewinder, none of the Red planes fired them in last week's dogfights. Even so the U.S. confirmed what it had suspected: that the MIG-21 is indeed, as Pentagon Air Operations Colonel Thomas D. ("Robbie") Robertson observed, "one hell of a good bird." The Phantom, at 1,584 m.p.h. on the straightaway, is swifter (by some 300 m.p.h.) and more powerful. But the lighter, single-seat MIG-21 has an advantage in maneuverability, and a 10% faster rate...