 The latest weapons coupled with the fighting skill of the American soldier stand ready on the alert all over the world to defend this country, view the American people against aggression. This is the Big Picture, an official television report to the nation from the United States Army. Now to show you part of the Big Picture, here is Sergeant Stuart Queen. These days it is a rare week when no news story breaks about some new, almost fantastic weapon developed by American scientists. But no matter how many valuable devices are added to our defense arsenal, the basic vital element of the United States Army remains constant, the individual soldier. He may have any one of a thousand jobs, but every soldier and every job are directly related to a single unswerving purpose. The subject of today's Big Picture, the role of the Army. Today mankind lives in a state of civil and military revolution unparalleled in history. The most powerful weapons are moved much more accurately, directed over longer distances and travel at speeds unbelievable a decade ago. Our military revolution is three-pronged. Experiments in jet propulsion with rockets have been in progress for half a century, but only in recent years has the rocket attained full stature as a highly lethal, precisely controlled weapon. Combining jet propulsion with advances in thermonuclear explosives brings the concept of the ultimate weapon nearer reality. In no area of scientific development has there been greater success than in electronics. Electric circuits and cathode ray tubes are increasing man's capabilities for destruction, surpassing his own physical limitations. As each new weapon is perfected and introduced in the military arsenal, science has called upon to produce an antidote, a weapon to counterweapon. Electronic brains with senses more acute than man's own are planted in steel containers to seek out and destroy enemy targets with infallible deadliness. More and more the role of the machine in modern military power increases in size and importance. Television, once the bugaboo of the radio and motion picture industries has added a new perspective to the battlefield. The electronic eye narrows the gulf between the combat zone and command headquarters. Conversely, today's technology tends to widen the gap between combatants. Rarely do opponents look upon each other's faces. Surrounded by metal and plastic, supported by artificial air, guided by sensitive gauges, they pursue, attack, and kill one another with mathematical detachment. However, at the core of every machine or setting every machine in motion is the individual fighting man. Charged with the responsibility of maintaining the security of the United States are the joint chiefs of staff. Under their command are both the machines and the manpower of the United States Army, Navy, and Air Force. To the Navy, naturally, falls the mission of controlling the seas. In World War II and Korea, sea, air, and land forces have proved to be equally essential components in total United States military strength. Each service equipped and designed for combat in a certain element is supreme in its own area. To maintain that supremacy, each service of necessity uses some of the basic tools of its sister services. To the Air Force goes the task of maintaining control of the air. Upon occasion, each service functions independently as the job at hand requires. And, though vital in its own right, no branch is more important than another to our national security. Navy takes to the air so the Air Force frequently operates in the natural domain of the Army, the land. Low-level bombing in support of ground troops makes the job of the Internet much easier. With the advent of the atomic era, a new and formidable mission was assigned the Air Force. Massive retaliation against any aggressor. Each with its own mission and capabilities, frequently the Air Force, Navy, and Army team up to tackle a problem in unison. The advantages of such combined operations as the Incheon landing are plain. With the changes being brought by the jet atomic electronic revolution, the concept of inter-service cooperation is being strengthened. While at the same time, each branch is working toward a goal of self-sufficiency within its own area of operations. A new combined striking force incorporating nuclear-powered ships, atomic artillery, and air-guided missiles would make the Incheon invasion pale by comparison. But such a force would be vulnerable to the very weapons it turns to its advantage. Yet, in the middle of this military revolution, one principle remains constant. The Army, Navy, and Air Force all exist to maintain the sovereignty and security of the United States to keep inviolate the land mass of the nation. The land in the final analysis is the prize of war. The aggressor's aim is to capture new land, to turn it to his own use and advantage. From the beginnings of history, the covetous man has eyed neighboring fields rich with natural wealth. In seeking to make the land his own, the first wars were conceived and fought. For defense of the land is the inevitable, almost automatic reaction of the landholder. Battles for farmlands gave way to wars for kingdoms, and then to holocausts spanned by political ideologies. But invariably, the decision to openly employ arms to gain an end is based upon the attacker's desire to capture the land to control the people who inhabit it. The wealth represented by America's farmlands has been joined by an even more obvious symbol of prosperity. The structures which house our industrial giants. Here the products of the land are refined and transformed into the necessities and luxuries of American life. These are the targets of an enemy, for destruction or his own enrichment. No nation is more a network of vast, sprawling cities than the United States. Nowhere do so many people spend their lives in a metropolitan environment, and city living today has taken on a new and potentially hazardous aspect. For this huddling together on the land has made us perhaps the most vulnerable to attack of all the countries of the world. We too much enjoy our way of life to jeopardize it by rash use of nuclear weapons. Our primary purpose in nuclear experiments and military preparedness is to discourage any other power from resorting to war as an instrument of its policy. But should another war be forced upon us, no matter how big the hydrogen bomb, no matter how many guided missiles are launched, the final winning of the war will still be the dirty business of soldier fighting soldier. Cities, industries and millions of people may be wiped out, but ground troops will have to be sent to occupy the countryside to control any survivors. The land is the army's element. The army is organized, is trained and equipped for combat on land. The army's purpose is to defeat enemy land forces and to control the land. The army's role is unique. It makes war against men, defending our people against attack, attacking the enemy's forces in turn. The army, the men who comprise it, comes into direct contact with the enemy. Many of the weapons of ground combat change, but the infantryman's role is the same. It is a personal relationship between him and the enemy, a problem of kill or be killed. The army's losses are measured in terms of men, of human life, not equipment. By its very nature, the army is singularly qualified to accomplish certain jobs. It provides a positive defense against enemy land forces. It combats guerrilla action, and by maneuver, the army forces the enemy into positions where he is vulnerable to attack by a variety of weapons. Even after battle, the enemy's people are still a problem for the army. Though hit and run tactics are sometimes used, the army's operation is basically a sustained one. Because of sustained action and direct contact with the enemy, the army has a large number of people to look after. Civilians and prisoners of war. Once having gained control of the enemy's land, it is the army's job to control the people on it. This is the ultimate objective of the ground forces. The army must restore order from chaos by imposing its will on the defeated enemy. The army may be fighting one minute, then organizing civilian control and military government the next. Unless the enemy is bent upon complete self-annihilation, it falls to the army too to meet with the commanders of the opposing forces to bring the fighting to an end. No weapon or machine, no matter how powerful or automatic, can drive the enemy from his lair and hope to bring about the resolution of a battle or a war. This is the job of the men who lead the land armies. While certain facets of the army's role remain constant, others are undergoing radical change. The Normandy type invasion is antiquated today. No nation would be foolish enough to concentrate large numbers of planes, ships and men in one open area where they would be inviting attack by atomic bomb or shell. However, to fight a nuclear war, more men, not fewer, will be needed. Casualties are likely to be higher. The use of atomic weapons directly at the front requires some basic changes in army tactics. Greater dispersion, better control, speed and cross-country mobility. All of these become vital elements in organizing a successful campaign. Currently, the only answer to guided missiles is dispersion and camouflage. The answer to mass force is mobility. Targets for atomic artillery cannot be created by the weapons themselves. The enemy must be forced to collect in pockets by the army's ground troops taking advantage of existing terrain. The commander on the ground must have not only atomic weapons, but also sufficient forces to create targets for his weapons. The army's aim is to keep its own battalions strung out to avoid atomic attack by the enemy, while forcing him to consolidate. The target is no longer the weak spot for the breakthrough, but rather the enemy concentration worth an atomic shell. Appearance of atomic tactical weapons on the battlefield, however, does not alter the basic truth that only ground forces using the old proven techniques of firepower plus mobility are capable of taking and holding the land. Ground blasted by atomic firepower must still be physically occupied by troops before it can be considered secure. Once shaken by atomic fire, enemy troops and installations must be cleaned up before the enemy can recover. Recruiting men, then training them to become effective soldiers, is an important part of the army's task. Under our present draft and enlistment programs, this is a continuous process, preparing the recruit to replace the trained man who has been discharged. The step from high school or college to battlefield or atomic battlefield has become enormously enlarged in recent years. Moreover, the turnover in personnel demands constant replacement, an increasingly difficult task in itself. The army takes full advantage of civilian skills, but there is no civilian skill comparable to ground combat. There is no civilian activity requiring the year-round physical fitness required of the infantrymen, and there is no civilian tool comparable to the M1 and the carbine. Thanks to the marvels of science, the individual soldier today must know not only his foxhole and M1 inside and out, but also the wise and house of a wide range of elaborate equipment. And as the scientific marvels increase, so the demand for technicians increases proportionately. As a result, the average inductee or enlistee must be better trained in more skills than ever before. Moreover, more personnel are needed to fill the constantly lengthening job lists. The training task is truly staggering. The recruit must be first trained in an entirely new profession, that of a soldier. Then, frequently, he must learn to understand, operate, service and repair the countless new weapons and devices of the atomic era. New methods of supplying the army reflect the whole spirit of change and adjustment. The division of World War II was tied to its supply lines. It could not operate when these lines were cut. Highways and railroad lines are static, too open to attack. Once a supply train has been devastated, the problem of repairing the tracks is compounded by the need to clean up the debris and the ruined supplies themselves. Harbors are equally vulnerable and useless after direct hits when channels and dock space may be clogged for weeks. All the army's training, its weapons and supply efforts are aimed at the ultimate purpose of assisting the American soldier in combat to meet the enemy's forces and to defeat or destroy them. The battle groups of the future, as they are being organized today, will be able to fight with only the supplies they can get by air. Thanks to the parachute and the helicopter, the word beachhead may be erased from the fighting man's vocabulary. Just as the atom is changing the principles of attack, it is also giving new meaning to the words dispersion and mobility. Following a close-in atomic attack, troops drop in on the enemy in a vertical envelopment. The advantages of surprise, swiftness and widespread force work well for the airborne infantrymen. Because a small atom bomb could virtually sink an airfield as well as a carrier, great emphasis is being put on vertical takeoff aircraft. But no matter what the form of transportation, the underlying theme is the same. The machines exist to move the men. The men who man the machines function primarily to move the foot soldiers. In part of the slower, more vulnerable avenues of supply offered by highway, rail and ship, the new attack teams receive weapons, ammunition and supplies by air. By using new weapons and revolutionary methods of attack and supply, conventional U.S. ground forces are rendered more powerful, man for man, than those of any enemy. With increasing emphasis put upon dispersion, there is a correspondingly greater need for more and better supporting elements. With small units deployed over vaster areas than in the past, communications personnel must assume more and heavier responsibilities. The army has set its sights on atomic shells for more than its heavy artillery. This boost in firepower for smaller weapons is comparable to the introduction of gunpowder in the day of the bow and arrow. The archer gave way to the fusillier, the weapon altered, but not the man. The major change was tactical. So today, the foot soldier's job is the same, the most important in battle. But his method of operation is becoming radically different. With the battleground of the future covering vaster areas, the successful fighting force, men and equipment, will be large in number and will move faster, more efficiently than the enemy. Not only as a fighting force is the U.S. Army a power for peace. Through its very existence, the army represents a bulwark against aggression. The best guarantee for our friends overseas and the best convencer for an enemy that any attack on our allies involves immediate retaliation is the actual presence of substantial American military strength. In Europe, we cannot afford to withdraw our troops and rely for defense solely on allied troops. The morale of our NATO allies depends largely on the presence of American divisions as proof that we are firmly committed to the defense of free Europe. In Asia too, the same morale boosting psychology is at work. The presence of our forces represents a rallying point to be seen and appreciated by anti-communist citizens. To CETO nations, our forces symbolize the same determination made plain in Europe. Wherever army troops are stationed in defense posts, they serve as safeguards to the security of our overseas lines of supply. They guard our outlying naval and air bases and commercial harbors and those of our allies for that matter. In time of war, supply lines become lifelines. Additional ground forces in fighting trim are needed to protect the areas through which the lifelines pass. These avenues stretch to the four points of the compass from the zone of the interior to worldwide defensive outposts. With the polar air routes open for shortcut attack, our warning and defensive bases are moving further and further north. The same army committed to the defense of warm Pacific islands must learn to do more than survive in the hostile North country. Ground troops here must stand ready for action as a working part of our total defense bastion. Today, as in the past, great reliance has put upon our reserve and national guard units for stand-by military strength. Steps are being taken to enable these units to attain and maintain a far higher standard of peacetime readiness than they have ever had before. It is vital because whether the status quo prevails for years or whether tensions increase to the point of imminent eruption, we shall need ground troops of very high quality and in a major war, a great many of them. Unfortunately, a factor called time compression by military strategists must be reckoned with. This concept recognizes that in the first hours of war, atomic weapons will deal out destruction unparalleled in conventional warfare. Hence, active forces are more essential than ever to counter the first attack. No matter how rapid the reserves can be mobilized, the decisive phase of a major war may be terrifyingly short. To keep our guard up against a deceitful attack, the United States must maintain a striking force that is strong enough to check local communist acts of aggression on the spot. If the United States has this expanded ability to send ground troops into dangerous spots, the chances are good that we will not be forced to use that. Without enough forces at our disposal, we invite the communists to take risks at good odds. It is the Army's job to see that the risks are not taken. Ground combat is violent and dirty, a nasty and vicious business. By its very nature, it is repulsive to civilized men. It is so repulsive that it's difficult to find men anxious to handle the job. But in times of crisis, America has always produced men with enough guts to fulfill the Army's mission. To meet the enemy, muzzle to muzzle, bayonet to bayonet. This era of ours, burgeoning with new, mighty weapons, does not mark any decline in the value of ground troops, nor does it produce any doubt that in a future war, the final decision will lie in the hands of the Army, in the hands of the men who are able to advance in the face of all the hazards of the modern battlefield to drive the enemy from his positions and to take and to hold the land. An Army with weapons is more effective certainly than an Army without. Yet as long as the basic ingredient, people, remains, the Army will exist and its unchanging mission will exist to conduct sustained land combat for the purpose of controlling land and the people on it in the interest of the security of the United States. Now this is Sergeant Stuart Queen inviting you to be with us again next week for another look at the Big Picture. The Big Picture is a weekly television report to the nation on the activities of the Army at home and overseas, produced by the Signal Corps Pictorial Center, presented by the United States Army in cooperation with this station. You too can be an important part of the Big Picture. You can proudly serve with the best equipped, the best trained, the best fighting team in the world today, the United States Army.