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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MAY 14, 1982
PAGE 10
carrying two cruise missiles with
three times faster than sound.
retired, in a companion piece to
following in arguing against more
ranges of 500 miles and speeds of two to
Admiral Stansfield Turner, U.S. Navy,
the NEWSWEEK Special Report, wrote the
super-carriers:
The Sheffield case points out how difficult it is to harden a
surface ship so that it can weather missile attacks. The extent
of damage to the Sheffield was far greater than one would expect
from a single missile. We must surmise that it chanced to strike
some vulnerable point that ignited a chain reaction of destruc
tion :
.!i �
destroyer has� one sensitive point, an aircraft
carr 1er has many of them. Many of the vulnerable points on a
carrier--aviation fuel lines, bombs and planes loaded with fuel
on the flight deck--cannot possibly be hidden behind defensive
shielding. We once armored the sides of our battleships, but at
Pearl Harbor they were sunk by bombs through the decks, not the
sides. We should not follow that battleship folly once again,
especially since the� missiles� becoming� accurate that
they� be guided to the specific points of greatest vulnerabil
lli....
The whole history of warfare is 1ittered with cases of
military planners preparing for yesterday's battles••••It would
be a shame if the human tragedy of the Sheffield falsely led us to
perpetuate a dying form of naval warfare [the big carrier].
Nevertheless, indications are that the U.S. is going to be moving in the
direction of a 15-carrier task force fleet--up from 11 today. Moreover,
the Navy is hauling four battleships out of retirement, with the intention
of refurbishing them as cruise-missile platforms. That's like "digging up
General Custer" snides a critic of the plan.
War Hysteria Grips an Emotional Nation
Argentina is in the grip of pride-swelling war hysteria. One wonders if the
Argentines really know what war is really like. The feeling seems to be
that a successful war against Britain will really put Argentina on the map.
"We' re going to clobber the English so hard," blustered a Buenos Aires
cabbie, "they'll know who the Argentines are." Says TIME magazine in its
May 17, 1982 article, "A Blue-and-White Frenzy":
Not surprisingly, government officials have been delighted by the
groundswell of popular support. "They are absolutely euphoric,"
said a senior aide in the office of President Leopoldo Galtieri.
"Everyone's dancing in the hallways.
It's like� party".•••A
government-controlled propaganda campaign•.•effectively plays on
the Argentines' long-frustrated dream of national greatness and
destiriy.
The celebrated Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, in the May 19,
issue of NEW REPUBLIC writes of some of the earlier warring gauchos
boys) in Argentina and neighboring Uruguay. His description of them
applicable today: "To them�� not� systematic plan of action
manly sport."
1982
(cow
is as
but a
Notice too this report, received over our Associated Press news wire on May
12: