ARMED FORCES: The Brass Ring

Citizens concerned about the race between growing Russian and U.S. air power have in the last fortnight been taken for a dizzying ride on the public-relations merry-go-round. Brass rings:

¶ The Air Force, through the Defense Department, released a terse statement stressing Russian progress in heavy and medium jet bombers (one of them comparable to the eight-jet B-52 the U.S. is now building). The statement concluded: "This knowledge is evidence of the modern technology of the Soviet aircraft industry and the advances which are being made by them."

¶ Georgia's wise old Senator Walter George growled that the statement "may...

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