 This is the Big Picture, an official television report of the United States Army, produced for the armed forces and the American people. Now to show you part of the Big Picture, here is Master Sergeant Stuart Quain. Today, with the United States playing a larger and more important role than ever before in world affairs, we sometimes lose sight of some of the basic facts about the origin and structure of our government and institutions here at home. Under the Constitution of the United States, the duties and responsibilities of our Army are well defined. The ideas of our founding fathers and 180 years of experience all point to one central theme, the subject of today's Big Picture. Our Army is an instrument serving the will and the best interests of the people of the United States. Liberty enlightening the world, say Americans of the Statue towering at the gates of the New World, an everlasting monument to freedom. Impossible? The Statue of Liberty is here to stay permanently, not necessarily. The people of the Nile, the Tigris and Euphrates, the Indus and the Pole, the Araxes and the Mayo, they too felt their monuments would long remain dynamic. But the nations of their builders were overwhelmed or withered from within. Now ruins bear mute testimony to their conceit. What of America? The preservation of our heritage. In the colonies, the spirit of independence was abroad long before any formal declaration was made. From the beginning, before the beginning, Americans fought for freedom. Long years of warfare were needed to prove that the Declaration of Independence had to be respected by the world. Proclaimed liberty throughout all the land and unto all the inhabitants thereof rang the bell. The successes that conquered in Lexington, the citizen soldiers found that victory without organized training was costly and elusive. Though unskilled in the arts of war, the Americans at last prevailed. The architects of the Declaration were now free to expand their ideas in the Constitution. Its foundations were so broadly laid as to provide for the expansion of national life and to make it an instrument which would endure for all time. Phrases of its preambler terse but explicit, we the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Posterity of yesterday is the America of today. How far-sighted were the makers of the fundamental law of the Republic is revealed throughout America today. Among the nations of the world, the United States is the leader both in the supply and the consumption of energy. Ever-increasing power supplies have allowed us to grow. Farming today bears little resemblance to the farming of 18th century America. Our yield per acre is unparalleled. We have been called a nation of small towns and their number is growing fast as is our population an estimated 200 million people by 1975, nearly 300 million in another 50 years. From the crowded cities our population spread to the suburbs, the suburbs stretching deeper and deeper into the surrounding countryside. Our expanding population, our expanding economy, neither has progressed entirely free of setbacks or trouble spots, but in the main our advances under the Constitution have been orderly and steady. Nowhere is American leadership more apparent than in our industry. Our volume production has been the envy of the world. Our production methods models to be copied by scores of other countries. Nowhere in the world is material prosperity more apparent than in the United States. Increased production, increased spending power, and increased leisure time. This has been the legacy of the framers of the Constitution. To secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity reads the preamble. To implement these words to bring them to life, the Constitution continues, the executive power shall be vested in a president. A president shall be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States and of the militia of the several states when called into the actual service of the United States. All legislative powers here in granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives. Congress, President, Supreme Court, the cornerstones of American government. To our representatives we seek to have the objectives of the preamble maintained. In the United Nations we have an instrument working to provide for the common defense and to promote the general welfare on an international level. The United Nations has tackled nearly 50 world problems since its birth. They range from border disputes to shooting wars. In search of collective security we have joined in a variety of facts and alliances, both military and economic. In NATO we are joined with 14 other nations stretching from the North American continent through Europe to the Middle East. NATO provides for mutual defense, mutual aid, and the establishment of the North Atlantic Council for Treaty Supervision and Military Command. NATO since 1949 has been one of the strongest factors helping to keep peace in Western Europe. In 1952 the United States signed the USA Brazil Mutual Aid Pact. This was the first in a series of pacts with Latin American countries. The pact concerns exchange of military advice and materials plus joint armed action by our people if necessary. The following year we joined with South Korea in a mutual aid and defense treaty. The United States does not have to send armed assistance except in the event of an armed attack against territory recognized by the United States as lawfully brought under the administrative control of the Republic of Korea. Our Treaty with Free China in 1954 proclaims our interest in Formosa and the islands between Formosa and the Red Chinese mainland. No specific military commitments are made but there are provisions for consultation whenever a potentially dangerous situation arises. In the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization we are joined with Great Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand and Pakistan. With headquarters here in Bangkok, CETO's aims are mutual consultation and defense and discussion of overall Pacific regional security. Of top concern to Americans in recent months is the Middle East where we are linked with five nations in Europe and Asia under the terms of the Baghdad Pact. The Middle East today is of great importance due to two possessions, oil and geography. Both are vital to the modern world. Two-thirds of the world's known oil reserves lie here. Our defensive alliance is with Iran, Iraq, Great Britain, Turkey and Pakistan. Bland and peoples of the Middle East link three continents, Europe, Asia and Africa. Here lies the link between the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Here are the world-connecting caravan routes, the traders' high roads, few places in the world are considered more important by strategists. For Soviet Russia, control of the Middle East is a prize much to be coveted. Our current foreign economic aid program seeks to deploy our economic might, not merely to stave off communist aggression, but to roll it back by enlarging the area and the appeal of freedom, plus economic progress. The aim is to destroy the myth that only through communist-style regimentation can an underdeveloped country create the capital it must have for development. In all, we have mutual security treaties with 42 nations. Our military aid bolsters the common defenses of the United States and the free world by supporting the military forces of our allies. Since the organization of NATO, these countries have invested approximately five of their own dollars for every one America has offered. Such military assistance helps create security and confidence among our allies. Our military and economic aid program is designed to help moderate governments in new countries to remain in power. It also follows in the best American tradition of helping people in other countries to improve their lot. An integral part of our foreign aid effort is the military advisory program. Military specialists and technicians accompany the equipment and remain to instruct our allies in its proper use, maintenance, and repair. As a free-voting people, we are responsible for all efforts made to preserve our monuments and institutions, our Statue of Liberty, our Constitution. All the people have their say. We designate the military's commander-in-chief. We designate the legislators who raise and support the military, to determine how much aid our allies around the world will receive. The task of providing for the common defense has become vastly more complex in the years since the Constitution was formulated. Our defense establishment of necessity has brought in, has come to encompass more men, more machines, more sciences. Each of the military branches performs a specific function in maintaining the national security. In retaliation to an enemy attack, our Air Force is ready to make a strategic assault against the enemy's ability to continue the fight. Heavy bomber strikes in vital areas destroy his centers of industry and his tools of production and supply. Simultaneously, tactical air power is sent into action, destroying enemy aircraft and transportation on the ground, driving enemy planes from the skies. Supporting our ground troops in battle, dual military concepts are static for any of the services. Plans, tactics, and missions change to serve the best interest of the nation's defense. The roles of each service are equally vital. The basic purposes. Its primary function is to destroy enemy naval power, whether battle wagon or crater. While seeking to eliminate the enemy's sea forces, the Navy at the same time protects our own lines of commerce and communication. Clearly it's the Navy's job to transport troops and supplies, bringing them to the enemy's shore. Just as each service is designed to perform a specific function in our defense structure, so each service also requires men of special skills and training. The soldier is just such a specialist. His job? To defeat an enemy's land forces, then to hold the hard one ground. Should our military might fail to deter another war, no matter what weapons are used, the final winning of the war will be the business of soldier facing soldier. It has always been thus. Just as during the Revolution, on land the war of 1812 was fought by enlarged by skimply trained militia raised by the different states. To meet the challenge of the Mexican war, our regular army, though small, was well trained and wisely commanded. Augmented by volunteers, the Army fought brilliantly. Its success in Mexico marked the first time that Americans were victorious at great distances from their homes. The battles of the Civil War were waged by citizen soldiers, volunteers on both sides. The years of training and fighting produced armies second to none. Again, in 1898, when war with Spain broke out, volunteer units of militia hurried to answer the call to duty. The experience gained here led to the reorganization of our citizen military reserve. The enormous demand for troops to fight in France exceeded even the remotest estimates of planners. Unfortunately, we believed our own slogans too well. The war to end war was not. This happy phrase proved to be a fiction. For the Second World War, we were mobilized before the storm broke. For than 10 million men in arms, the United States came as near to total mobilization in World War II as we had ever come. From the remote and scattered battlegrounds, the United States had emerged as the leading power of the Western world. But once again, the lessons of history for the time were lost upon us. In Korea, generation after generation, we had tried to keep the peace through weakness. In this bitter infantryman's war, we perhaps appreciated the dictates of history for the first time. Although all our combat forces were essential for victory in Korea, only the army was able to provide the decisive forces to stop communist aggression. Korea taught us that never again should we weaken our army and encourage limited aggression. Might, we decided, is a deterrent to war, a power for peace. In the atom, in atomic energy, we have a force which has changed the complexion of all military strategy. In the atom is locked tremendous energy, the same kind of energy that created our universe. This energy was first harnessed in the United States for man's use. It represents a source of power for peaceful uses or for awesome destruction. Minutes after an experimental atomic blast, the soldier of today moves forward toward ground zero to see for himself the effects of nuclear devices. Equipment, weapons, and men are checked with digger counters to learn the amount of contamination received. The atom has revolutionized the mechanics of warfare, but the infantryman remains. Born of the atomic age is the army's new pentamic concept and reorganization. A reorganization now an evolution. To preserve the common defense demands that we place reliance on a strong combination of combat-ready forces in being, heat, mobility, and firepower are the key concepts behind the army's new look. Fast-moving, highly skilled paratroopers are part of the army's answer to the pressing military demands of today. We may be faced by aggressions where powerful nuclear weapons are used, or it may be a case of a brush-fire conflict confined to a small area. Men and equipment must be mobile. Move fast. Radical new battlefield techniques are adopted as soon as American science and industry make the new equipment available. Both the battlefield movement of troops and in the flexibility of its firepower, the army's tactical mobility is being steadily improved. There are new tanks and armored personnel carriers for the swift movement of the infantry-armor artillery team over fire-swept areas. Our current need is for infantrymen who can fight in independent actions in small groups, who can accomplish their mission swiftly and then move on to fight where they are needed next. The final and decisive element in warfare is not the weapon, not the equipment. It is the men who operate the hardware, men with many different skills. For all the men from thousands of different communities who possess a variety of aptitudes and abilities, the army has a place. The soldier's primary job is destruction. The question of why the army doesn't make more use of civilian skills is readily answered. There is no civilian skill comparable to ground combat. There is no civilian activity requiring the year-round physical fitness required of the soldier. And there are no civilian tools comparable to an army's weapons. More than ever in our history, the future of the army depends upon its research and development programs. Ranging far into the future, our army research and development pioneers are making spectacular advances. As the barriers of scientific knowledge are pushed further back, the complexity of the army's equipment makes increasing demands upon the soldier. Thanks to scientific advances, today's soldier must know not only his foxhole and M1 inside and out, but also the wise and hows of a wide range of elaborate or intricate equipment. As the advances increase, so the demand for technicians increases proportionately. As a result, the average soldier must be better trained in more skills than ever before. He must also be prepared to serve in a wider range of foreign land. More and more attention being directed by tacticians toward the Arctic army activity here keeps pace. Fortunately, the army is rich in courage and skill in the research and development papers. Technological superiority is perhaps the greatest single weapon for peace which our country possesses. The army's major research and development effort is in the field of missiles. Artillery is being augmented by surface-to-surface missiles. Anti-aircraft by surface-to-air missiles. Invaluable missiles are now in the development stages, guided missiles. Missiles to intercept and knock down missiles launched by an enemy. Technology and improved weapons. Combat soldiers still remains the symbol and the basic unit of the army. It is to him we must look for the guarantee that our army will be victorious in any future emergency, as it has always been in the past. Serving in 73 countries today, the members of our regular army form our first line of defense. Ready to swell the ranks of our regular army is the National Guard, the present-day descendant of the state militia of our constitutional planners. In a national emergency, the Guard is an organized force immediately available for action. In the event of internal disasters such as flood or hurricane, the Guard is a local protective force, too. It supplements local enforcement of law and order. At the same time, it assists in emergency relief of disaster victims. A third great force in preserving our liberties under the law is found in the army ready and stand by reserves. Their memberships follow the tradition of citizen volunteers of the past. A strong, well-trained reserve by its very existence does much to prevent an emergency by proclaiming to a potential aggressor our readiness to fight if a fight is needed to protect our heritage of liberty. Events in the past have left little doubt in the minds of most Americans about where the greatest threat to freedom lies. The Soviet Union's unparalleled military might, time and again put on view to instill apprehension and fear in the pre-world, has been used repeatedly to crush and to liquidate the desires of conquered peoples for freedom from foreign tyranny. Threats to the peace of the world have been exposed with the spread of communism's flood from Eastern Europe to Southeast Asia, with advanced thermonuclear weapons in its arsenal, with the world's largest standing army. The Soviet Union threatens and cajoles by terms. Its deeds give us mute but unmistakable warning. Communism rule is from the top down Constitution guarantees the reverse. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. A bridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Under the Constitution, the people of the United States control the armed forces. They elect the President and the Congress. The President is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Only Congress has the power to declare war. It appropriates funds thereby determining the size and activities of the armed forces. Monuments to older civilizations, to earlier cultures and ways of life have been toppled or allowed to decay. In our military forces, in the men who can rest victory from an aggressor, we have our greatest deterrent to war. The strongest safeguard of the institutions and heritage Americans today are pledged to defend. Such then is the role of our contemporary army under the Constitution. An army which is a unified, mobile force for peace. An army which stands as a major deterrent to war. This is Sergeant Stuart Queen inviting you to be with us again next week for another look at your army in action on The Big Picture. The Big Picture is an official television report for the armed forces and the American people. Produced by the Army Pictorial Center. Presented by the United States Army in cooperation with this station.