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This file contains material relating to Bartel Jonkman.
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Grand Rapids Reserve Officers Association, August 1948
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4525612
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Grand Rapids Reserve Officers Association, August 1948
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This file contains material relating to Bartel Jonkman.
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Gerald R. Ford Congressional Papers
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National security
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1948
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The original documents are located in Box D13, folder "Grand Rapids Reserve Officers
Association, August 1948" of the Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech
File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Copyright Notice
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of
photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. The Council donated to the United
States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections.
Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public
domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to
remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid
copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
speech by Germed R. Ford - Republic Candidate for Congress
monthly muting of Brand RESERVE Rapids OFFICERS branch SPPECH Revenue offers Essention -aught 1948
Fellow reserve officers: It was my original understanding that my
opponent in the Republican Primary, the incumbent, Bartel J. Jonkman, was
also to be a guest of the R.O.A. and was to appear on this platform with
me so that you would have the opportunity of hearing first hand from those
who seek to represent the 5th District in Washington. For one reason or
another but obviously as the part of a pdan to refrain from any public
appearances before his constituents, Mr. Jonkman is not here. His reaction
to your invitation was not entirely surprising to me. In the past
several weeks your present representative in Congress, the man who is
beholden to all of us for his position and who is legally and monally
obliged to represent the voters of this district, refused four separate
invitations from various civic groups.
To one, the Grand Rapids League of Women Voters, he replied for
publication that he had "previous commitments" but the private reason
for his refusal to participate in this non-partisan meeting, long a custom
in political campaigns here, was that it would be a "spectacle." To
others, one representing small businessmen in this district and another
representing veterans, he curtly replied that he was "too busy." To an
invitation by me to discuss the issues for the benefit of the voters of
the 5th district Mr. Jonkman said, "there are no issues."
Mr. Jonkman's non-appearance before this group here tonight, the
Reserve Officers Assn., is quite understandable. Many of you will recall
that approximately one year ago he was your guest speaker. At that time
he was to report to your members on National Defense and allied matters.
Mr.
I believe it was the concensus of those who heard Jonkman on that occasion
that he knew little about the fundamental problems of our Armed Forces
and had little or no knowledge about the problems you men individua
or collectively had as & part of our national defense set-up.
Penhaps .FORD LIBRARY
his disappointing showing at your previous meeting accounts for his
Digitized from Box D13 of The Ford Congressional Papers: Press Secretary and Speech File at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
2.
failure to appear here tonight.
For your benefit let's look at the record. We can ly dge a
person's future action by his past record. I submit that Representative
Jonkman is a product of, and a contributor to, the type of thinking that
led him to vote against practically every measure which possibly could
have bulwarked America's defenses before World War II. Both in Congress
and in public appearances in 1940 and 1941 he showed his complete inability
to percieve the dangers about us at that critical time. This lack of
foresight, this blindness guided his thoughts at a time when our
European friends and allies were over-run by the totalitarian nationa and
the catastrophe at Pearl Harbor was only a few months or even weeks away.
I can say to you who are in this audience, for all of us have had
similar experiences during our various military careers, that we as
citizens of this district can not again place our future and the welfare
of the succeeding generątions in the hands of a man who was partly to
blame for an insufficient number of ships and planes during the early
last
phases of the/war. We must have men in Washington with a civilian back-
ground who also know from first-hand knowledge that you can't build
airplanes and train personnal overnight, that ships and their crews are
not thrown together as fighting units in a fortnight, that tanks and those
who man them are not equiped to face the enemy at the drop of a hat and
an
that infantrymen are not trained to be effective force by a 30 day drill
period with wooden rifles. We have tolerated too long the presence of
men in office are and who were not cognizant of the fundamental
problems facing us in building an adequate national defense.
This country is again in grave danger from totalitarian forces that
seek to destroy democracy throughout the world. The threat to our
national security and our way of life is as imminent today as it was in
1940 and 1941. This country can not afford again to be plagued with
FORD
GERALD
LIQUARY
adership that will lead us down the path of appeasement and retrenchment.
Inasmuch as I strongly favor a foreign policy that is non-isolationist
3.
I can not condone the activities of those who follow or who have followed
the Munish philos phy "let's give in a little in hopes that they won't
ask for more " You never stop a bully by retreating. Democracy's cause
should be carried forward by those who have a deep conviction in the
righteousness of our way of life. We must use superhuman efforts to sell
democracy to the freedom loving nations throughout the world and at the
same time we must be prepared and willing to defend our own interest in
freedom by defending the right of others to decide between totalitarianism
or democracy. We cannot convincingly earry the torch for freedom against
the Russian bully unless we are adequately prepared from a military point
of view.
I will briefly summarize our present military strength. On V.J. Day
we had more than 10 million men and women in the Armed Forces. of May
1948 the authorized strength of the Armed Forces was 1, 732,000 and on
that date our actual strength was 85% of the authorized total or 1, 384,500
Since that date, after much invaluable time had been lost and after
smoke screen after smoke screen had been laid to hide the dire need,
Congress passed the peace time draft act in June 1948. I only hope that
our position as a world power has not been prejudiced in these perilous
times by delays resulting from a lack of courage on the part of certain
legislators.
For a time at least the personnel problem of the Armed Forces has
been met but Congress has the solemn obligation to re-examine the situ-
ation periodically to determine whether the present program achieves the
maximum results both from the point of view of the Army, Navy and Air
corps as well as from the point of view of the individuals who are called
upon to serve their country. The present plan, hurriedly born in com-
promise in order to get something that would save face, unquestionably
BERALD FORD VIBRARY
will have defects. If nominated and elected I promise to work for a
program that will insure to those who serve an education or trade that
will be valuable to them upon their re-entry into civilian life. I also
sincerely believe that a career i the Armed Forces can be made appealing
to ma of our youn men. We who have served i the various bra ches of
the military know what must be done along those lines. I, as your repre -
sentative, will do my utmost to achieve this objective.
In April 1948, a 70 group air force was authorized by Congress. In
light of the present foreign situation the upward revision from a 55 group
air force to a 70 group air force was proper for we should do everything
possible to guarantee the superiority of our air power in this air age.
But the mere building of more planes does not answer the question. we
must train new personnel and we must also keep trained those men who were
trained during the last war.. This means proper attention to our Air corps
reserves. They must have equipment, they must have a program that is
integrated with the over-all scheme and they must have funds with which
to these groups
to operate To-date money has been coming in slowby. There must be no
more delay.
All of these points I urge for a twofold purpose. First, I think
these actions are necessary to prepare us for an the eventuality of
another war; second, I am sure that military strength in the United States
is one of the few effective methods of convincing Russia--or any other
nation-that tampering with our security is risking the destruction and
sudden death.
If we convince the Russians of this, and if we continue to bulwark
freedom-loving nations in Europe with dollars-and-cents aid in their
struggle to remain free, then we may be assured that the already-cracking
Communist bloc will not destroy peace in the world.
It has been encouraging in recent weeks to see the new Yeadership
cooperation between the Army, avy and Air Corp under the leadership of
Secretary of Defense Forrestal. In the spring at the time of the
FORD celebrated Key West conference where Mr. Forrestal did his best to co-
i LIBRARY GERALD
ordinate and integrate the efforts of the various branches of the service,
t was evident that there was little real unity in thought or in action
5.
among our Admirals and Generals. This friction, this inability to arrive
at a satisfactory solution, was disc uraging to everyone who believed that
true unification of the armed forces had become a reality as the result of
the re-organization of the military departments by Congress. It appears
however that the gravity of the foreign situation, the explosive character
of the United States--Russian relations has brought new unity and accord.
In brief the results can be summarized by stating that the Air Force gets
the "exclusive role of XXXXXXX XXXXXX ///// ********
in the field of stæategic air warfare.' This is the job of bombing enemy
cities and enemy industry overseas. The Navy will have exclusive control
over anti-submarine warfare.
The still unsettled question is, Should the Navy have any. 65,000 ton
supercarriers for use on long range bombing missions? The Navy contends
that these supercarriers are the best weapon for striking back quickly in
case of a future Pearl Harbor. The Admirals argue that with carrier-
based bombers we could strike rapidly anywhere in Europe or Asia. The Air
Force claims that supercarriers are too sostly and too vulnerable. The
flying Generals contend that it is uneconomical and shortsighted to build
one supercarrier when you could, for the same price, build 300 B-29
bombers.
R.
As a forma Naval officer who served two years aboard a combat
carrier in the Pacific theatre I am familiar with the advantages of
also
carrier striking power but I am cognizant and quite familiar with the
OA
possible vubnerability of floting air bases. Prejudices for or against
based on previous service with one branch of the service or another can-
not and should not influence one's thinking when we have our nation's
security at stake. I can assure you that it will be my aim in Congress
to support a program based on making our striking forces the most
GETAL FORD STBRART
Afective in the world.
There is an additional subject that should be mentioned before
closing. Within the last several months you have heard of the move to
6.
virtually do away with the National Guard. The plan is to make the
National Guard a part of the regular army, stripping the various states
of any control and substituting in its place a state militia. I am
opposed to such a program.
The argument put forth for such a drastic change is that the National
Guard is not up to regular army standards and that in the next war there
will be no time to retrain and recondition the numerous units of the
guard. Such an argument does not hold true for we all are familiar with
the excellent and heroic records of our Michigan units when they were
called up early XXXX 11111 in the last war. If in some instances the
National Guard has not been up to standard such a condition is the fault
of the Army itself and is not a condition impossible to remody previding
there is proper supervision and direction.
I wouls also oppose the transfer of the National Guard away from
state jurisdiction because it would give support to the growing belief
that we in our own homes localities were unable to handle our own problems,
that the federal government in another instance is the only government
able
unit, to cope with new problems facing us today.
This ia a dangerous type of thinking. It has grown up in this and
other Congressional districts--and more particularly within the federal
government itself--because many of our representatives in Congress are
not performing the duties that were laid our for them when this
government was organized.
such congressmen
Specifically, they are not representing the people. They are part
of a mass that votes through mass pressure directed against them on a
national scale, rather than voting according to the beliefs of the
individuals congressman's constituents, and for the best interests of
these constituents.
But to get back to the National Guard--it performs valuable functions
FORD i LIBRARY QERALD
or the various states. During local emergencies the Guard stands ready.
to protect your interests and mine. We should not turn this organ-
7.
izat ion over to the central government. We should insist that the
National Guard retai n its identity and integrity so that it can
fn
function for us locally in times of peace and fight for the nation
as a ole in times of war.
Whether most of you know it or not, this chapter of the
Reserve Officer Association deserves special commendation for E ading
the fight during the last year for the B ssage of the "Like-pay-for-
Like -Service" Bill in Congress. Until this organization put its
shoulder to the wheel under the leadership of several of your officers,
this bill in Congress was doomed to failure. For many years the army
reserves had been unfairly discriminated against in that they received
pay only while on active duty whereas the Navy and the National Guard
received remuneration for drill and other activites.
At this time I would like to compliment those of you who worked
so diligently on behalf of this project. I might add that the condition
had existed too long and it might have been remedied sooner if we had
had a. representative in Congress who was alert and wh 0/5/ml had so me
first-hand knowledge of conditions in theArmed Forces.
In Conclusion let me say that when elected to Congress I will strive
to make our Armed Forces more efficient by more completely unifying the
activities of the various departments. There must be integration and the
elimination of duplicate roles and missions. We must provide ample funds
for scientific research so that this country has the most advanced and
modern equipment in all fields. Lastly, bu not least, we must make the
most effective use of our manpower. Those who serve in the Army, Navy,
and Air corps in time of peace and war must be educated and trained to
FORD be useful and productive citizens upon re-entry into civilian life.
GERALD LIBRARY