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He kept a battalion of marines scattered through his fleet. On Crete and on a small island near Malta, they practiced the delaying actions that might be needed to evacuate U.S. citizens abroad. Says Sherman: "As a decisive deterrent to
Pentagon to get a rubdown at the dispensary; every day he is at his fourth-deck office _at 9 a.m. He keeps his desk neat, and his decisions quick. He avoids speaking engagements, ducks parties except in line of duty, prefers to work at home or play bridge, at which he is excellent. He sometimes drinks.a Scotch & soda, but limits himself to one drink. His wife, a Florida girl whom he married while 'he was on duty at Pensacola in 1923, prides herself on her youthful looks. Mrs. Sherman dresses formally for dinner every night. Her principal interest is horses, which she raises; Sherman's principal exercise is riding. A favorite early-morning companion: General George Marshall.
Sherman was shocked at the weakness 'f the Navy's Pacific force when he took over. He sent the Boxer to Manila, is sending the Philippine Sea to the West Coast. The Russians, he thinks, are showing increasing naval interest in the Pacific—reports are that Admiral Yumashev sat in on the conferences with China's Mao. It Sherman has his way the U S 's Seventh Fleet will show the flag from Cam ranh Bay to Batavia.
Sherman's Navy was bustling. Last week^162 ships converged on Vieques Island in the Caribbean in the biggest amphibious exercise since the war. Off San Diego, jet planes landed successfully on a carrier in full darkness for the first time.
Price of Security. As of last week, Admiral Sherman had got himself a Navy of seven fleet carriers, seven smaller carriers, 13 cruisers, 129 destroyers and 72 submarines. Was it enough?
The Administration was qualifiedly reassuring. Harry Truman last week declared that U.S. defenses were in better shape than they had ever been in peacetime. Economy-shouting Secretary Johnson proclaimed that the armed services were far better than they were two years ago. Both statements might be true, but neither answered the question. Was it enough? Sherman, speaking as a professional man, answers candidly: "The answer always has to be no."
Sherman, like most top-rung military leaders, recognizes that a sure defense is more_ than a free economy can buy and remain a free economy. He also recognizes that the U.S.'s real strength lies not in its active forces but in its massive industrial capacity. (Said Chester Nimitz: "The U.S.'s major strength factor and weapon is its economy. If you cripple it, you cripple the military.") But there is a minimum defense force which the U.S. must have, and every one of the Joint Chiefs believes that Louis Johnson's $13 billion budget is not enough.
The State Department's ablest geopol-itician, George Kennan, observes shrewdly: "The U.S. has really priced itself out of the market of competitive world power. It costs us so damn much more than the lean & hungry Russians that we can never hope to maintain the force to keep them in effective physical balance." Military men generally agree. What they want is just enough force to make the Russians think twice before striking—and enough, if the Russians do strike, to put up a defense and launch a counterattack.