In matter-of-fact soldier's prose, 70-year-old Defense Secretary George Marshall sent a progress report to his Commander in Chief. "As of tomorrow, 21 March, 1951," he wrote the President, "the strength of our armed forces will be exactly double what it was on 25 June, 1950. This has been accomplished less than nine months after the Communist aggression against the Republic of Korea." Then, with pride, he added: "For your information, the strength we have already attained . . . was not attained in World War II until more than twenty-one months after our build-up started . . ."
The U.S. now...