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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JULY 29, 1983
PAGE 11
express fears that the United States, as Gen. Edward
c.
Meyer,
former Army chief of staff, put it recently, is in danger of
being "led down the slippery slope."
Any commitment of U.S. troops, Meyer said in a meeting with re
porters several weeks before the announcement of extensive exer
cises in Central America, "would need a clear identification of
purpose up front and a clear evaluation by the military of
whether it's possible to do that."
"We didn't do that in Viet
nam," Meyer added.
"We inched our wayin.
EvenI was al1ttle
confused as to why I was there.:-:-:"·-- --
Air Force Lt. Gen. John T. Chain, deputy chief of staff for plans
and operations ••.expressed
surprise and concern that senior
Pentagon civilians had described the deployment as a military
shield to protect governments supported by the United States.
"That's too much," he said in an interview Tuesday.
"That means
you have a strategy for isolating the area, setting up a barrier.
What we don't want," he added, "is to g h t sucked into� Vietnam
type ffiing where�� nibbled to aeat ."
In his editorial entitled "Still a Hobbled Giant," in the August 1 U.S. NEWS
& WORLD REPORT, Marvin Stone showed how America's will to win was lacking in
Korea and Vietnam· and apparently is still missing today.--In other words,
the U.S. has the power to win--no one questions that--but the pride in that
power has vanished, true to prophecy:
Central America is providing yet another demonstration of how
difficult it has become for the United States, as a superpower to
wield its power effectively.
The first such demonstration ended 30 years ago, on July 27,
1953, when the U.S. signed an armistice ending the Korean War.
After three years of fighting, in which 34,000 Americans died, we
called it quits.
This writer witnessed the signing of the Korean armistice and,
after that dispiriting experience, was one of three correspond
ents flying back to Tokyo headquarters with Gen. Mark Clark, com
mander in chief of the United Nations forces.
I remember General
Clark's eyes misting over and his remarking sadly:
"Do you real
ize this is the first time an American commander has ever ended a
war which the U.S. did not win?".••
Since then, the U.S. endured a second war without winning--that
in Vietnam.
There, in 1973, the U.S. once again pulled out,
after another long and costly fight with
Communist forces,
leaving behind 58,000 American dead.
Now, still another time, the U.S. is facing the threat of Com
munist expansion. And again the U.S. faces a difficult decision.
In Central America, the countries involved are even smaller than
Korea or Vietnam.
Their rnilitary forces are relatively minis
cule. The scene of conflict is much nearer the U.S., and there
fore more easily accessible.
In a conflict, the U.S. doubtless
could prevail if it chose to apply sufficient power.