Now the American Legion speaks

Title

Language

English

Year

1946

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

America must be read\· at all times in the iuture because she ,~-ill b~ on the spot. The next aggres.<or will recognize her a.< the chiei stumbling block to world conquest in two world wars passed. He will predicate all his plans on knocking America out iirst. He will helie\'e he ma\· be able to crush us before we can g~t readr to fight. \\"e are just simpletons ii we do not take cognizance oi these facts and go,·ern oursel\'es accordingly. The late Theodore Roose\'elt. ex-president oi the L' nited Stares oiten urged, ''Speak soirlr but carry a big stick!" George \\'ashingron ad"ised us to. "H3\·e a citizen-militia force of a sufficient size and strength to be respectable in the e\"es oi our friends and ieariul in the eye; of those who might othern·ise become our enemies.'' Both of these great Americans had grasped an essential fact-peace without rower is a pipe dream! \Ve· must also bear in mind. too ·that war has become a business of ~peci~lists. \\Teapons ha,·e become fearfully complex. It takes months of time to train a raw boy to operate a gun turret in a Liberator bomber; to use a bazooka; to fire arrillerr; to dri,·e tanks, ro fir planes; to handle machine guns. \Vhen "·e are <uddenlr attacked, we will not have time to mobilze to train. \Ve will onlv ha,·e time to mobilize to fight. Th.e C nh·ersal 11ilitary Training Program will pile up for us a lot of critical time that will be precious to us in the hour of national need. Lim's Laundry and Cleaning 315 JAY STREET SACRAMENTO 907 4th ST. ·~, SACRAMENTO II DIAL 2-3013 GREEN TOP TAXI :\'OW THE A1IERICA:\ LEGIO:\' SPEAKS In appraising the merits of the uni\'ersal 1Iilitary Training plan for the L7 nited States, ad\'ocated bv the American Legion, it is well to adj;1st our thinking to grim new developments and facts. For great number of yean; Americans have looked upon the Atlantic and Pacific oceans as our own God-given natural defense barriers against all foreign attacks. \Ve have also looked upon the British na,·r in conjunction with our own to supplement those natural defenses. But things have changed suddenly. \\7orld \Var II has been a laboratorv for the development of "i:he science n'f modern warfare. It has been too good a laboratory. From it, have come war planes flying faster than sound, robot bombs, rocket planes, electronics, amphibious operations, all of which even in their present infancy, already have literally stripped America of her defensive armor-the oceans, hte mountains and the deserts. In the next war there will be no natural barriers am·where in the world to bar military operations. In the next war it will be possible to bombard cities across the ocean by radar and electronic controlled artillery, robot bombs or rocket planes. Vast armies will be transported in giant aerial troop carriers. Speed such as we have not even dreamed of will mark attacks .. We know these things are coming because that is the way they are shaping up the world today. We must also accept the facts that the wars will come again. History continues to repeat itself. In the face of this knowledge we, as a nation, cannot and must not stick our heads into the sand in the naive belief that if by effort we blind ourselves to approaching danger, it will not come to us. Our responsibility is to appraise all these conditions realistically. When we rate the sobering facts at their grim ya)ue, only one conclusion is possible. -3

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