ARMY: New G-2

The Army announced the appointment tersely, casually, with no hint of its importance. But when Brigadier General Raymond Eliot Lee, 55, succeeded Major General Sherman Miles, 59, as Chief of Military Intelligence, he was taking on one of the biggest jobs in the world.

The Intelligence Division—G-2 in Army lingo—is the eyes & ears of the General Staff. It coordinates diplomatic and military information from all over the world, sifts rumor from fact, breaks down enemy codes, estimates the strength of friend & foe, charts international trends, figures out possible military moves.

Since the outbreak of World War II, the eyes & ears of the Army have not always been as sharp as they might be. When Hitler plunged through France, most of G-2 —and most of the Army— held out little hope for Britain. Even gloomier were G-2’s estimates of Russia’s chances against the Nazis. More immediately costly than such errors of judgment was the failure of both Army and Navy Intelligence to keep tabs on the Japs. Said the Roberts report on Pearl Harbor: “Both commanders were handicapped by lack of information as to Japanese dispositions and intent.”

The new head of G-2 was one of the few U.S. officers who had not underestimated the durability of the British and the Russians.

Since the Army was forbidden by law from sending undercover agents abroad, before the U.S. was at war attaches had to operate strictly on their own. Nevertheless, during five years in Europe (1935-39, 1940-41), General Lee picked up so much information that War Department associates rate him the most knowledgeable Army expert in the U.S. on European matters.

General Lee is middle-sized, thin-lipped, softspoken. He sports the proudest, fiercest thatch of mustache this side of London. His eyes are a pale, noncommittal blue, the right pupil marred by a splotch of white—a mark left by a polo ball 20 years ago.

Like his boss, General George Catlett Marshall, General Lee is not a West Pointer. He joined the Coast Artillery as a second lieutenant in 1909, after graduating as a civil engineer from the University of Missouri. (One of his contemporaries at Missouri was War Production Administrator Donald Nelson.) He served with the Field Artillery in World War I, got the Distinguished Service Medal in 1922. After the war he commanded a battalion in the Philippines.

Around G-2 headquarters today there is a feeling that General Lee will sweep away a lot of cobwebs.