CIVILIAN AUTHORITY INCLUDES POLICY AND PROPRIETY REVIEW

Senator STENNIS. You say here in your statement, though that you

know of no military officer who questions the historically accepted principle of civilian control of the military, or the responsibility and authority

General TRUDEAU. Yes.

Senator STENNIS (continuing):

of the Secretary of Defense and high officials to review, for policy and propriety, the statement of a military spokesman.

Now, it seems to me from that statement that inescapably, you are agreeing that there has to be some coordination or some review?

General TRUDEAU. Preferably from the security standpoint, yes. Senator STENNIS. You do not say here from the security standpoint, as I read it, General.

General TRUDEAU. That is true. I did not put the word in. Security is understood, I believe.

Senator STENNIS. You mean to amend this statement now by saying from a security standpoint?

General TRUDEAU. No, no. I would further study the problem before I would amend the statement.

Senator STENNIS. Just which is your testimony now, the statement as written out here or as added to?

General TRUDEAU. Would you refer to the part of the statement from which you are quoting?

Senator STENNIS. Yes, page 6, and the third paragraph beginning on page 6 reads as follows:

Next, I know of no military officer who questions the historically accepted principle of civilian control of the military, or the responsibility and authority of the Secretary of Defense and higher officials to review, for policy and propriety, the statements of military spokesmen.

General TRUDEAU. Well, I see nothing wrong in that. It is the responsibility and the authority of the Secretary to exercise such control as he feels necessary.

Senator STENNIS. Yes.

General TRUDEAU. I would be the last one to quibble with that.

Now, whether the present system represents the best means of doing that could be something for the Secretary to determine.

Senator STENNIS. I fully understand that, the present system you are not approving, but you do approve the idea of review, the authority of the Secretary of Defense?

General TRUDEAU. I do not question it. That is the Secretary's

decision.

Senator STENNIS. For policy and propriety?

General TRUDEAU. That is the question of higher authority to determine what their policy is.

Senator STENNIS. Policy and propriety.

General TRUDEAU. And propriety, if they so decide.

POLICY REVIEW BY MILITARY UNDER DIRECTION OF SECRETARY OF

DEFENSE

Senator STENNIS. Now, I did not understand you to say a while ago,

wish to. There is something in your testimony that brought that to my mind.

You certainly did not mean that, or I misunderstood it in some way. There are 475 or 480 general now in the Army alone, as you know, and your statement carried with it some kind of an obligation of coordination.

General TRUDEAU. But if people of equivalent rank had to pass on all the speeches made by generals, we would have a further expansion of the Department of Defense.

Senator STENNIS. Yes.

Now, there is a point that I think you have made a constructive suggestion on. About this review, you said at one point that it should be by the military men themselves under the direction of the Secretary of Defense.

General TRUDEAU. It seems to me that is adequate. We do not have any trouble getting our orders carried out within the military, and if we know what higher authority wants, we usually execute their orders.

Senator STENNIS. Well, now, I think that is in the way of a suggestion-if you want it treated that way-the idea that this review should be considered solely by military men, but under the direction of the Secretary of Defense.

General TRUDEAU. It certainly has some validity. I am sure there are other factors that have to be considered.

Senator STENNIS. Yes.

Well, that is what I was coming to.

Now, as a practical matter, the Secretary of Defense, of course, could not personally have a chance to do much of this, you know, with his other enormous duties, and it would be necessary to have someone doing it for him; that is correct, is it not?

General TRUDEAU. Yes.

Senator STENNIS. And he would have to have someone there, even if he was not a military man, representing his direct thought. Is that reasonable, do you think?

NEED FOR POLICY TO BE SPELLED OUT IN WRITING

General TRUDEAU. It might work out. But I see no reason why you cannot spell out to a very large extent through directives, or whatnot, just what you can and what you cannot say. If it is anathema in this country to stand firmly against communism, or to call it Sino-Soviet communism or to call it Marxism, then spell it out and tell us and let us know.

Let us get it in writing, so it is not the personal opinion of somebody depending on the best intent in the world or whether there is some other shade of motivation there. Let us know just what we stand for.

Senator STENNIS. All right.

I think that is another constructive suggestion:

That in this review, it is necessary, according to your statement here, that there ought to be definite guidelines, as far as possible.

CIVILIAN AUTHORITY INCLUDES POLICY AND PROPRIETY REVIEW

Senator STENNIS. You say here in your statement, though that you know of no military officer who questions the historically accepted principle of civilian control of the military, or the responsibility and authority

General TRUDEAU. Yes.

Senator STENNIS (continuing):

of the Secretary of Defense and high officials to review, for policy and propriety, the statement of a military spokesman.

Now, it seems to me from that statement that inescapably, you are agreeing that there has to be some coordination or some review?

General TRUDEAU. Preferably from the security standpoint, yes. Senator STENNIS. You do not say here from the security standpoint, as I read it, General.

General TRUDEAU. That is true. I did not put the word in. Security is understood, I believe.

Senator STENNIS. You mean to amend this statement now by saying from a security standpoint?

General TRUDEAU. No, no. I would further study the problem before I would amend the statement.

Senator STENNIS. Just which is your testimony now, the statement as written out here or as added to?

General TRUDEAU. Would you refer to the part of the statement from which you are quoting?

Senator STENNIS. Yes, page 6, and the third paragraph beginning on page 6 reads as follows:

Next, I know of no military officer who questions the historically accepted principle of civilian control of the military, or the responsibility and authority of the Secretary of Defense and higher officials to review, for policy and propriety, the statements of military spokesmen.

General TRUDEAU. Well, I see nothing wrong in that. It is the responsibility and the authority of the Secretary to exercise such control as he feels necessary.

Senator STENNIS. Yes.

General TRUDEAU. I would be the last one to quibble with that.

Now, whether the present system represents the best means of doing that could be something for the Secretary to determine.

Senator STENNIS. I fully understand that, the present system you are not approving, but you do approve the idea of review, the authority of the Secretary of Defense?

General TRUDEAU. I do not question it. That is the Secretary's

decision.

Senator STENNIS. For policy and propriety?

General TRUDEAU. That is the question of higher authority to determine what their policy is.

Senator STENNIS. Policy and propriety.

General TRUDEAU. And propriety, if they so decide.

POLICY REVIEW BY MILITARY UNDER DIRECTION OF SECRETARY OF

DEFENSE

Senator STENNIS. Now, I did not understand you to say a while ago,

wish to. There is something in your testimony that brought that to my mind.

You certainly did not mean that, or I misunderstood it in some way. There are 475 or 480 general now in the Army alone, as you know, and your statement carried with it some kind of an obligation of coordination.

General TRUDEAU. But if people of equivalent rank had to pass on all the speeches made by generals, we would have a further expansion of the Department of Defense.

Senator STENNIS. Yes.

Now, there is a point that I think you have made a constructive suggestion on. About this review, you said at one point that it should be by the military men themselves under the direction of the Secretary of Defense.

General TRUDEAU. It seems to me that is adequate. We do not have any trouble getting our orders carried out within the military, and if we know what higher authority wants, we usually execute their orders.

Senator STENNIS. Well, now, I think that is in the way of a suggestion-if you want it treated that way-the idea that this review should be considered solely by military men, but under the direction of the Secretary of Defense.

General TRUDEAU. It certainly has some validity. I am sure there are other factors that have to be considered.

Senator STENNIS. Yes.

Well, that is what I was coming to.

Now, as a practical matter, the Secretary of Defense, of course, could not personally have a chance to do much of this, you know, with his other enormous duties, and it would be necessary to have someone doing it for him; that is correct, is it not?

General TRUDEAU. Yes.

Senator STENNIS. And he would have to have someone there, even if he was not a military man, representing his direct thought. Is that reasonable, do you think?

NEED FOR POLICY TO BE SPELLED OUT IN WRITING

General TRUDEAU. It might work out. But I see no reason why you cannot spell out to a very large extent through directives, or whatnot, just what you can and what you cannot say. If it is anathema in this country to stand firmly against communism, or to call it Sino-Soviet communism or to call it Marxism, then spell it out and tell us and let us know.

Let us get it in writing, so it is not the personal opinion of somebody depending on the best intent in the world or whether there is some other shade of motivation there. Let us know just what we stand for.

Senator STENNIS. All right.

I think that is another constructive suggestion:

That in this review, it is necessary, according to your statement here, that there ought to be definite guidelines, as far as possible.

Senator STENNIS. For the benefit of you in the first place and for the benefit of the reviewers that your speech goes to in the second place, is that right?

General TRUDEAU. That is correct.

Senator STENNIS. I think that is a very fine suggestion.

General TRUDEAU. That is correct.

Senator STENNIS. You are a man of experience and have traveled this road, and your suggestion is worth something.

General TRUDEAU. Thank you, sir.

Senator STENNIS. That is what I meant when I called on you for suggestions.

Now, in the light of that explanation, is there something else concrete that comes to your mind?

General TRUDEAU. I don't think so at this moment, sir.

Senator STENNIS. We offer you the opportunity, and in a very constructive way, too, if there is anything else that comes to your mind that you would care to communicate to us, we would be delighted to have it.

General TRUDEAU. Thank you very much, I appreciate it, Senator. Senator STENNIS. When this is all over, we do not want it to be what someone said, "just a lot of words." We want to have constructive suggestions, and you have certainly made some.

General TRUDEAU. Thank you, sir.

Senator STENNIS. For this I thank you, and my time is up. I call on Senator Saltonstall.

Senator SALTONSTALL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

General, may I say first that I thought your presentation was an excellent one, and I would agree with it, I think.

General TRUDEAU. Thank you, Senator Saltonstall.

Senator SALTONSTALL. Now, may I ask you this question. As I understand it, you differ with the question of procedure rather than the question of policy of reviewing the speeches of generals or other military officials.

It is the manner in which it is done to which you object rather than the question of whether speeches should be reviewed, is it not?

General TRUDEAU. As far as the technique is concerned, that is correct, and beyond that, as I say, I do not know exactly what the policy is, as far as its spelling out is concerned.

Senator SALTONSTALL. Would it not be more appropriate, for that reason, to use the word "coordinate" rather than "censor"?

"COORDINATE" PREFERABLE TO "CENSOR"

General TRUDEAU. Yes.

I do not like the word "censor" myself. I never have liked that word and I do not like it even on the American scene. In certain military situations we understand it has to be enforced, but certainly, in a peacetime governmental structure, where we are all working for the same end, I think it is very unfortunate to have to refer to this word. And yet, it is in such common use that I know it is embarrassing to some but generally accepted.

Senator SALTONSTALL. But it would be a helpful suggestion to this