Word: ridgway
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1950-1959
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Reported General Matthew B. Ridgway, retiring Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, last week to the NATO Standing Group in Washington: "I find the disparity between our available forces and those which the Soviet rulers could bring against us so great . . . that a full-scale soviet attack within the near future would find Allied Command . . . critically weak . . . Our progress is insufficient ... to give us acceptable prospect of success if attacked...
...Much," said Ridgway, "has been done." For example: 1) from the North Cape to the Caucasus, Allied forces are now controlled by one integrated command; 2) existing land forces could probably ward off a surprise onslaught by the 22 Russian field divisions on permanent station in East Germany; 3) 60 of the scheduled 125 Allied airfields are usable in an emergency; 4) atomic warfare training for key NATO officers is under...
...Ridgway was not satisfied with the state of his support and supply units, his ammunition stocks, and "our greatest weakness"-tactical air power; he was disturbed that West Germany's "contribution" was still denied him. Above all, he was alarmed by the way "nations are beginning to change their planned military programs from rapid rearmament to a longer-term policy . . . Any real slackening of effort may itself open the way to aggression...
Within a few weeks, the new Joint Chiefs had been named: Radford, Ridgway, Twining and Carney, and Gruenther had been appointed Supreme Allied Commander in Europe...
...nervously awaiting their ordeal by interrogation, sat the four beribboned nominees (see cut)-prospective Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Arthur Radford, the Navy's schoolmasterish-looking Admiral Robert Carney, the Air Force's handsome, white-maned General Nathan Twining and the Army's General Matthew Ridgway, stiffly erect in paratroop boots...