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QQ, exrnzas romvow winct nine ©) On the RAF's fiftieth: birthd WRONG ABOUT THE BOMB? . x @ TOMORROW the Royal Air Force is 50 years old. As it reaches this anniversary the air force that was once the mightiest in the world finds its conventional strength reduced to the level ‘of “eT co countriestike Turkey and North Korea, Sweden and India. 4 “" @ At present the hitting power of the R:A.F,-is.concentrated in its ageing V-bomber force. - in every other department th un dowa = has been drastic. WHEN Robert Mc- Namara took his departure from the Johnson Administra- tion earlier this year ‘he left.a time bomb _behind in the Penta- gon. It is now setting off a series of explosions which, is ri “~ the United States ‘by THE RT. HON. ENOCH P slung between two alterna- lves: elther a war which endangered their safety and existence would not out at all, or, if it did, it @ But does this matter? For in the H-bomb era, do conventional forces count? Would not any war quickly become an H-bomb war? @ Today the Sunday Express publishes an article with an important bearing on these questions. It puts forward a revolu- tionary view of strategy in the years immediately ahead and exposes the blunders of official military planners in writing-off the risks of conventional war.* OWELL, we. break © Shadow Defence Minister The Royal Navy fought— and lost—the “ battle of the carriers” Jn 1965-6 without any reference to an Atlantic war or an “all-out war at before they are finished, would go nuclear in a matter - sea.” _ will have reduced the of a few days at most. We h Controversy. ‘ true, there dete i have now been cut down has been abou “broken- © omeial military thinking and pitched on to the hard backed war” at sea, after He of the West for the last oor ot a very different the nuclear salvoes “had ate 20 years to rubble. Teality. been exchanged; but a war R The bomb was his valedic- The Pentagon has left no at sea before the nuclear bee tory Report to Congress. doubt that it means just exchange or without any of The fuse was @ single sen- what St says when it talks nuclear exchange has not bell tence therein: “The threat ‘about the threat of an even been discussed. And beli of an incredible action ts not incredible action not being now the Americans have be! an effective deterrent.” an_ effective deterrent. made it the centre-piece of fou The Defence Secretary's their naval thinking. anc ALTERNATIVES message to Congress firmly wit envisages that the U.S. NATO CREED Me Just that. But after all, might have to fight “an car that was everything; all-out war at sea"— The change-over on land T the “incredible action MeNamara's own words— has been every bit as Coi which would last many dramatic. For almost the eq: wa Seetne tateh creat Sele on® Maat ety Wh