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Generals 'Reprimand': Loudmouths Reassigned

By VVAW

When President Carter recalled two top military brass hats to the White House and censure them, our "cherished democratic institutions" were hardly endangered; in fact his whole affair is only interesting for what they revealed as future trends and for some of the candid statements that were made.

The first incident began when the Washington Post ran a story quoting Major General John K. Singlaub that Carter's plan to withdraw US ground troops from southern Korea would "lead to war" by inviting a North Korean attack. Carter's plan calls for the withdrawal of some 40,000 US troops, consisting mainly of the US 2nd Infantry Divisions and support units, over a period of four to fie years. US tactical air squadrons would remain and Carter would seek loans from Congress of up to 1.5 billion dollars in military aid for the South Korean regime.

Singlaub was the third highest ranking US general in South Korea and the Chief of Staff of US forces there. He was supposed to help sell this plan to the South Korean government. His open opposition led to his immediate recall.

Singlaub's error goes beyond loose lips or unsophistication with the press. The US war machine, and the capitalist system backing it up, cannot man every possession around the world with the same unlimited strength as in the past. It must make adjustments to the present economic crisis to meet new challenges. And the main challenge to US imperialism is coming from the Soviet Union and the focus of US concern is no longer Asia, but now Europe.

Originally, Korea was one country. Following the end of World War II the US occupied the southern half and set up a puppet, dictatorial government there. Attempts by the North Koreans to unify their country led to the Korean War. American rulers agree that to allow the Koreans to unify their country would mean the loss of billions of dollars in US investments and future profits. Their problem is one of balancing the importance of Korea with that of Europe.

The next incident came two weeks later when Lt. General Don Starry spoke at the graduation ceremonies of the Frankfort American High School, in West Germany. Starry was the commander of the US 5th Corps and a rising figure in the army hierarchy before he was called to the White House. He had been nominated for a fourth star and was about to take command of the Army's Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Monroe, Virginia.

In his speech, Starry lashed out at the so-called liberal press and referred to Watergate saying "The liberal press are not interested in the truth, only in the 5% or so of the news that deviates from the norm. Presumable they would be willing to muckrake around every public administration just to see it fall, without concern for the consequences to the country." The consequences he is referring to is the distrust most Americans have for politicians, Congress and government institutions in general. In his bourgeois brain it's much better to lie about or cover-up such "untruths" as Watergate or the south Korean bribes in Washington DC or the Congressional sex scandals or the secret bombings during the Vietnam war.

And he got down to the nitty-gritty by telling his young audience "there will probably be war in your lifetime." And that "Conflict of some kind is a natural state of man."

"In your lifetime the Soviets will fight the Chinese, probably in a major war. Difficult as it may be to see the United States becoming involved in such a war, it is likely we would do so once it became apparent that one or the other of the antagonists was about to win and gain absolute control over the bulk of the Eurasian land mass."

These blunt, artless statements would embarrass any administration. War is the "natural state of man" today only because the two superpowers, the US and the Soviet Union, while trying to maintain their respective capitalist empires are presently at each other's through, and preparing for war to expand at the other's expense.

A was between the Soviet Union and People's Republic of China is possible. The USSR would love to turn China into a satellite colony as it has done to several eastern European countries. If this war occurred the US would probably get involved, not to defend China's people or territory, but to follow the same strategy it had during World War I and II. And that was to enter such a war late, after other countries have weakened themselves, in order to insure itself the world's number one power after the war.

It was, of course, too much for Carter to have a high ranking general state so openly and so unabashedly, that young people can proudly expect to be future cannon fodder (as "difficult as it may" seem). The ruling class needs to give lofty and glorious reasons for slaughtering our youth on the battlefield--like the "securing of liberty and democratic freedoms" they were telling us to die for in Vietnam.

But Carter realizes that despite all these two generals are really "good old boys" anyway, and that he would have future use for them. In transferring Singlaub, Carter made it clear that he wasn't demoting him but just giving him a "lateral" reassignment to a new post with "equivalent degree of responsibility and stature." As for Starry? Carter had a serious thirty minute discussion with him as he stopped by the White House on his way to is new duty station.