Every Sunday, “Back in the Day” looks at an article that ran on this date in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. The items are verbatim, so don’t blame us today for yesteryear’s bad grammar.
Army commanders here concluded the four-day "Exercise Oahu" yesterday with a reaffirmation that important wars of the future will still be fought locally and on the ground.
The logic of this doctrine, called "limited war," is that Russia and the United States are equally capable of destroying each other with nuclear missiles.
This means that Russia may attempt to nibble at the edges of the free world in a series of small, localized wars such as the Korean conflict.
However, this doesn’t mean U.S. Army commanders here or elsewhere advocate the continued use of only the so-called conventional weapons.
On the contrary, both "enemy" and "friendly" forces in Exercise Oahu used atomic weapons in this simulated "local" war.
The "enemy," entrenched on Oahu, had a mythical fleet of eight warships at their disposal and a number of submarines.
The submarines fired guided missiles armed with atomic weapons at the invading "friendly" forces, which landed at Waikiki Beach Tuesday.
The invaders had two Honest John atomic rocket launchers and four 8-inch howitzers capable of firing shells armed with atomic warheads.
As the invaders swept northward toward Kahuku Point, it was the responsibility of the opposing commanders to keep their forces highly dispersed, preventing concentrations which would make the use of atomic weapons logically feasible. …
There are no mass concentrations of troops or well-defined lines.
The exercise came to an end on the heights of Koolau Range at 10 a.m. yesterday with the enemy forces pocketed in Kahuku Point, a prime target for an Honest John (atomic rocket launcher) or a brace of 8-inch howitzers.
The "enemy" commander, Colonel Chester R. O’Malley, conceded defeat only because the umpire said he’d lost.
If he had his way, he would have infiltrated the friendly lines and indulged in guerrilla warfare.
But the umpire said no.
