STRATEGY: Fast Work

The meeting was expected to last two days. Actually, it was over in six hours. “It was found,” wrote one Washington newsman, reporting a phenomenon rare in international councils today, “that areas of disagreement on practical steps to be taken were considerably fewer than had been expected.” The happy meeting consisted of the Atlantic Treaty nations’ defense ministers or their representatives, collectively known as the Defense Committee. They had come to Washington to set up and set in motion the defense apparatus outlined by their colleagues, the foreign ministers, last month (TIME, Sept. 26).

Under the chairmanship of U.S. Defense Secretary Louis Johnson, the ministers established i) the Military Committee, composed of twelve chiefs of staff (Iceland, having no military establishment, may be represented by a civilian), which is to draw up strategy and “policy guidance” for the Atlantic nations’ defense;

2) a standing group, composed of representatives of the U.S., Great Britain and France, which, under directives from the Military Committee, is to provide “specific policy guidance and information” to

3) the five regional planning groups, charged with the defense plans for their particular areas; 4) a Military Production and Supply Board, to work with the U.S. chiefly on the distribution of arms under the new U.S. Military Assistance Program.

The Military Committee promptly got down to work the next day under Chairman Omar Bradley, head of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.