MILITARY COLD WAR EDUCATION AND SPEECH REVIEW POLICIES WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 1962 U.S. SENATE, SPECIAL PREPAREDNESS SUBCOMMITTEE The special subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10 a.m., in room 235, Old Senate Office Building. Present: Senators Stennis (chairman), Jackson, Thurmond, Bartlett, Saltonstall, and Smith. Also present: Special subcommittee staff: James T. Kendall, chief counsel. Senator STENNIS. All right. The subcommittee will please come to order. We will have order in the chamber so that everyone may hear and the subcommittee may move forward with as much dispatch as possible. First I want to thank the Space Committee chairman and staff for lending us their hearing room today as well as any other days if we request it. They are always very generous with us in that respect. CHAIRMAN'S REMARKS ON RESERVISTS AT FORT POLK May I say just one very brief word to my colleagues on the subcommittee regarding a matter that is not particularly relevant today. I had a whirlwind day and a half visit over the weekend at Fort Polk, La., where I saw a clear demonstration of the effectiveness and the soundness of our reserve system-21,000 National Guardsmen and Army Reservists stationed there are engaged in active, vigorous, and up-to-date training. There is not a single regular on the entire base from private to general. They represent civilian soldiers altogether, brought out of their homes on very short notice, and taken away from their businesses and their jobs. They are schoolteachers; they are doctors; they are business executives; they are insurance agents; and they are architects and engineers. They constitute the finest kind of a combination of leadership, officers and enlisted men, and they are representative of the most vigorous kind of community and professional leaders from their various hometowns. I was greatly encouraged by what has already been demonstrated there, not just as a possibility, but as a reality in bringing into being on short notice tremendous military power through our reserve system. I will not go into further detail. I wanted to give you that. I know each one of you is interested. I am going to make a short statement on the subject on the floor of the Senate. CHAIRMAN'S OPENING STATEMENT Now I have a short opening statement, after which the witnesses will be sworn. Today the subcommittee continues its study of the military troop information and education program, which is the second of the three phases of this inquiry. I attach extreme importance to a sound and effective program to inform military personnel of the superiority of the American way of life as compared to that of the opposing Communist ideology. It is my conviction and sincere hope that the activities of the subcommittee will make a substantial contribution to a more effective and adequate troop information program. It is clear, I believe, that to be effective fighting men, our troops must be prepared mentally and morally as well as militarily. The witnesses who will appear before us today have detailed and expert knowledge in the troop information field and they should do much to throw light upon the difficult problem with which we are confronted. These witnesses also have detailed and intimate knowledge of the experiences of our prisoners of war in the Korean action and the crises which they faced in that conflict. We believe that their views and opinions upon the basic and fundamental reasons for the behavior of the Korean prisoners of war will aid us in determining the requirements of our troop information program today. However, I wish to make it abundantly clear that we do not intend to make an examination in depth of the details of the experiences of the Korean prisoners of war. This has been adequately and efficiently done by other congressional committees as well as by noncongressional agencies in the past and it is not our purpose to duplicate their efforts. We are interested only in determining what light the Korean experience will shed upon troop information requirements for today and for the future. Our inquiry into the Korean experiences is to be viewed in that light as it is only one of the many factors which we must consider. The witnesses for today are Lt. Col. William E. Mayer, of the Medical Corps of the U.S. Army, who is currently stationed at the Medical Field Service School, Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Tex., and Brig. Gen. S. L. A. Marshall who is now in the Retired Reserve of the U.S. Army and makes his home in Detroit, Mich. Lieutenant Colonel Mayer will be the first witness. I will ask both Colonel Mayer and General Marshall to stand and be sworn. Will you come forward, please, gentlemen. Do you and each of you solemnly swear that your testimony before this subcommittee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Colonel MAYER. I do. General MARSHALL. I do. Senator STENNIS. All right, Lieutenant Colonel Mayer will be the first witness. You take a seat at the table, Colonel. General Marshall, you make yourself at home here. You do not have to sit at the Members of the subcommittee, I understand, as I have said, that these witnesses are going to get down to the details of their experiences with reference to the program that we are studying. I think their testimony is going to be rather lengthy. I think that the two of them together will present a balanced perspective of the situation. SUBCOMMITTEE HEARING SCHEDULE Now, may the Chair say a word about our future sessions. The Chairman understands there is scheduled to begin today, a discussion of the proposed constitutional amendment to outlaw the poll tax. I think this will bring up all related subjects with reference to voting requirements, including the statutory provisions on the subject matter as well as the proposal to ban all literacy tests as voting requirements, except the requirement of 6 years in school. Of course, that is a very far-reaching and important matter to all of us. It is certainly considered important by the Chair. The Chairman feels that his place of duty during all of that debate upon those subjects, is on the floor of the Senate. That is where I will have to be. Now, if we can work out any arrangement within that necessary requirement that will keep our hearings in progress, I want to do it. But we will just have to take those steps as we come to them, and I am going to ask the subcommittee to excuse me here a little before 12 o'clock and Senator SALTONSTALL. Mr. Chairman Senator STENNIS (continuing). And then I may go to the floor to see just what is going to happen. Senator SALTONSTALL. Will the Senator yield? Senator STENNIS. I will be glad to yield to Senator Saltonstall. Senator SALTONSTALL. I would say as one member of the committee and one on this side of the aisle, I respect the way the chairman has been handling these meetings. I hope the other members of the committee would agree with me that we hold ourselves in readiness when the Chair calls the meeting. If he is detained on the floor of the Senate on important business, I would hope that the committee might stand in recess until he personally can be present to conduct these hearings which he has done so very well. We know that this matter on the Senate floor is of great importance to him and to his State. So I hope that the other members will agree with me that when the Senator feels he has to go to the floor, that we recess subject to his call, and I will make that as a motion. Senator STENNIS. I thank the Senator. However, I think we should hold that motion in abeyance for the time being until there has been more chance to discuss it. I haven't discussed this with any of you, as the members know. Senator SALTONSTALL. Mr. Chairman, I don't think it takes discussion. I really make the motion now. I don't see that we need to hold it off. I would hope that the Chair would hold the committee in recess until he can be present and take charge of the meeting, and when he feels he has to be on the floor, then we recess subject to his call. There is a quorum present, and I make that as a motion. Senator STENNIS. Senator, if I may respond, it has been quite bur has so many other assignments that it makes it a burden for you to attend. I greatly apreciate what you have done in attending, but the debate on the floor can run for weeks. I think it will raise the whole issue. Some will put up one flag and someone else will raise their flag. Senator SALTONSTALL. I say most respectfully that if the subject of debate on the floor of the Senate runs, we will say, for a greater period of time than the balance of this week, then the chairman will call the committee together and determine what course to follow at that time. I make that as an amendment to my motion. Senator STENNIS. All right. If that is agreeable, that will be the decision for this week. I think when the debate commences and the bill is brought up, it will last far beyond this week. I think you have made a good suggestion. We can lay the groundwork now so everyone will know what the plans will be for this week. If the debate goes beyond this week, we can make additional plans. Is that agreeable to the subcommittee as a temporary proposition for this week? All right, without objection, then, that will be the rule for this week. All right. Thank you very much, members of the subcommittee. TESTIMONY OF LT. COL. WILLIAM E. MAYER, MEDICAL CORPS OF THE U.S. ARMY MAYER UNABLE TO EXPLAIN PUBLIC RELEASE OF STATEMENT Senator STENNIS. Now, I understand, Colonel Mayer, you do not have a prepared statement. Colonel MAYER. Well, sir, I do have a statement based Senator STENNIS. I mean a written statement that you could give to the subcommittee now. Is that right? Colonel MAYER. Only the one I have already submitted to Mr. Kendall, which is rather long. Senator STENNIS. You do not have one yet that is ready to hand to the press and to the members of the subcommittee. Colonel MAYER. Yes; I believe this statement is available for members of the press. Senator STENNIS. Well, I had understood, and Mr. Kendall, chief counsel, said that he had understood that you did not have a prepared statement ready. If so, we would have had it mimeographed for distribution if we had gotten it in time. Does the press have one? Senator SMITH. Mr. Chairman Senator STENNIS. Senator Smith? Senator SMITH. Mr. Chairman, I read in the newspaper this morning that the press had already had the statement and had received it yesterday. I thought it was rather strange that the press would have the statement before the members of the committee. Senator STENNIS. Do you know how that happened, Colonel? SENATE RULE ON STATEMENTS TO COMMITTEES Senator STENNIS. The rule is, and I understand it is the rule of the Senate, that a statement has to be submitted first to the sub |