In the same paragraph as the words above are these: “When Defense Secretary Neil McElroy warned him that further cuts would harm national security, Eisenhower acerbically replied, ‘If you go to any military installation in the world where the American flag is flying and tell the commander that Ike says he will give him an extra star for his shoulder if he cuts his budget, there’ll be such a rush to cut costs that you’ll have to get out of the way.’”
Speaking of promotion I remember the DIVAD anti aircraft failure. 40mm guns on a mobile platform blasting away. It had many fault that could not be corrected. It took years to kill. I read during that that the officer in charge would receive his star/or another star if he could get that weapon system accepted into US army.
oooh, 8 years of “development” to put an existing gun on an existing chassis. 50 built. Sounds much like the 100 F-22s we got, or the 20 B-2s, or the 3 Zumwalt class DDs, after many years, and Billions for “development”. Then there is the F-35.
Steve…remembers the Senator from Bath Iron Works, when the Zumwalt program was cancelled, whining “jobs”