Truman concurred. When General MacArthur persisted in public criticisms of this policy decision, the Joint Chiefs reluctantly agreed that the President should relieve MacArthur. Truman promptly did so and, at the recommendation of Bradley and the Chiefs, named General Matthew B. Ridgway, USA, as the new commander in the Far East. The war in Korea and the fear of further communist aggression triggered a major rearmament effort. Between June 1950 and December 1952 the armed forces grew from 1.45 to 3.51 million men. General Bradley refereed an interservice debate over the nature of this expansion. Working closely with Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Lovett, Bradley won JCS approval of a plan that emphasized Air Force expansion. To deter aggression in Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) set about creating an integrated military structure. General Bradley played a key role in establishing this structure. He spent much time negotiating with his British and French counterparts over the organization of NATO's Atlantic and Mediterranean commands. Omar Bradley was promoted to the rank of General of the Army on 22 September 1950. He was the only Chairman to attain five-star rank. His tenure as Chairman ended on 15 August 1953, three weeks after the Korean armistice. As a five-star general, however, he did not retire. After leaving the chairmanship, Bradley joined the Bulova Watch Company, subsequently becoming chairman of the board. In March 1968 he was one of the "wise men" who reviewed Vietnam policy for President Lyndon B. Johnson. Bradley died in New York on 8 April 1981. ARTHUR WILLIAM RADFORD 15 August 1953 - 15 August 1957 rthur Radford was born in Chicago, Illinois, on 27 February 1896. After growing up in Illinois and Iowa, he entered the US Naval Academy in 1912. Following graduation in 1916, he served during World War I on the battleship USS South Carolina in the Atlantic Fleet. Radford realized a boyhood dream to fly when he entered Navy flight training in 1920. He earned his wings the following year. For the next twenty years, he alternated among assignments with the fleet, naval air stations, and the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics in Washington, rising from lieutenant to captain. Shortly before the United States entered World War II, Radford became Chief of the Navy's Aviation Training Division. Here he oversaw the expansion of the training program to meet the greatly increased requirements for Navy pilots during the early stages of the war. Promoted to rear admiral, he commanded a carrier division in the Pacific during 1943. After a brief assignment at the Navy Department, he returned to the Pacific in November 1944 to command another carrier division. For the remainder of the war, he directed carrier attacks against Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and Tokyo. After a series of staff and command assignments in the immediate postwar period, Radford, now a vice admiral, became Vice Chief of Naval Operations in January 1948. In April 1949, as that tour was ending, the "revolt of the admirals" erupted in Washington. Senior naval officers objected strenuously to the Secretary of Defense's cancellation of a new "super" carrier. The Navy wanted the new carrier, which could carry larger planes, to establish its role in strategic nuclear warfare. The ensuing controversy led to a congressional Admiral Arthur W. Radford United States Navy |