Navy League confronts cold war challenges

Sea Power, Aug 2003 by Vergun, David

The rapid military demobilization that followed the final U.S./Allied victory over Japan in the Pacific, ending World War II, was perhaps inevitable, but it left the Free World once again vulnerable to totalitarian aggression. Once again, as they did after World War I, the Navy League's senior leaders warned against postwar complacency and continued to champion the cause of the sea services and to educate the public about the vital role played by American seapower both in national security and in supporting the nation's economic well being. Events would soon justify their warnings that the surest way to ensure peace is to maintain a strong national-defense program.

In September 1949, much to America's dismay, the Soviet Union detonated its own atomic bomb. The Communist Party of China came to power in the following month. Eight months later, on 25 June 1950, communist North Korea invaded-and nearly overran-South Korea. In 1957, the Soviet Union successfully test-fired the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and also launched Sputnik, the world's first space satellite. Nuclear war now seemed just a button push away-and the United States, it appeared, was in second place in the latest and potentially most devastating "arms race" of the 20th century.

In 1958, the Navy League launched a Cold War-offensive of its own. The League's magazine of sea power, which had ceased publication in 1947, was restarted, and a broadside of blunt warnings from NLUS National President John J. Bergen were issued, including the following: "To stay on the defensive in the war against Communism will mean ultimate defeat. ... This is the hour of decision."

The Navy League's leadership fully backed the U.S. Navy's endeavor to develop, build, and deploy a fleet of nuclear-powered Polaris ballistic missile submarines, which eventually would become the most survivable leg of the U.S. nuclear deterrent triad-Air Force strategic bombers and ICBMs were the other two legs of the triad.

Also in 1958, the Navy League's Advisory Council On Naval Affairs (ACONA) unleashed a massive national campaign blitz against communism called Project Alert.

ACONA, an NLUS-sponsored organization made up of hundreds of leading citizens across the country, many but not all of them members of the Navy League, worked closely with naval district commandants, and with NLUS councils and other patriotic organizations around the country, to support the sea services and to gain widespread public support for a broad program to help defend the United States and other countries of the Free World against the rapidly burgeoning communist threat. J.W. Reeves Jr., national chairman of ACONA, insisted that members be both hard-working and proactive. ACONA's Project Alert activities included speeches, seminars, symposia, and audiovisual presentations at public gatherings about the threat to democracy posed by communism and about the importance of the sea services in combating that threat. Members also assisted sea-service recruiters and worked with high schools and colleges in spreading the word to America's young people.

But Project Alert was much more than a platform for supporting an effective military buildup. It was about the need for moral leadership. "The only approach [to fighting communism] lies in the awakening of the consciousness of the nation and of the individual youth," Reeves wrote in 1958, "to the need for a conviction and dedication to our cause, which exceeds that shown by our enemies to their own."

ACONA leaders-bank presidents, school principals, police chiefs, doctors, judges, and other influential citizens-gave numerous speeches, warning about moral decay in American society and urging the rehabilitation of delinquent youth. They backed their words with deeds, moreover, spending evenings and weekends mentoring young people and participating with them in numerous activities ranging from the building of model airplanes to sports and other recreational activities and to enrollment in naval and military study courses.

Reeves summarized the importance of moral leadership in defeating the communist menace as follows in a 1961 statement: "The home, the church, and the school teach and mold our youth. They produce the men and women who make our country what it is. That is why education is so tremendously important. Not merely education in arts, sciences, and avocation but, just as important, the development of personal character and discipline. Our nation is only as great and as strong as its citizens."

Throughout the 1960s, dedicated ACONA leaders continued to alert Americans about the threat posed by the communists and, through personal example, urged Americans of all ages to exercise self-discipline, follow high standards of morality, and otherwise support the principles of good citizenship. At the time, such goals seemed to be somewhat visionary, and perhaps impractical. Today, though, there seems to be no doubt that the Navy League and its ACONA volunteers played a significant part in the eventual Cold War victory of democracy over communism.