European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 13, 1992, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday May 13, 1992 the stars and stripes a Page 13 commentary Robert Reno Summit won t put Consumers in Driver s seat plans of the leading mandarins of the japanese and american automobile Industry to meet in Chicago next week raise All sorts of suggestions As to what these Guys Are going to talk about. Do you suppose that they will go into a closed room previously swept for listening devices and there conspire to make air bags Standard on the passenger Side to raise Gas mileage increase crash survivability reduce emissions and hold the line on prices or maybe  be scheming to improve worker safety and satisfaction or to limit executive compensation. If pigs could Fly these might be some of the Likely subjects on their Agenda. But a spokesman for the automobile manufacturers association said the purpose of the Summit is to reduce the . Trade deficit with Japan 75 percent of which is related to automobiles and Auto parts. Now of course we All want to reduce the Trade deficit. And if we be got any sense we must realize that no matter How you go about it there is a Cost to doing so. It seemed like a wonderful idea when under pressure from the Reagan administration the japanese agreed to voluntary quotas on Auto exports. And what happened relieved of pressure from imports the Detroit manufacturers raised prices choosing Short term profits Over Long term Market share. And the japanese they raised prices too and were Able to maintain or increase their Dollar level of exports and their profit Levels while exporting fewer units. That in Case you wondered is one reason Why the Trade deficit with Japan did not decline. Anyway the growing manufacturing capacity of the japanese companies on american soil a hastened and encouraged if anything by the Reagan Era quotas a made the quotas increasingly meaningless because a huge share of japanese production was immunized from any protectionist threat. The quotas in the end did not protect the indigenous american manufacturers from precipitous declines in their Domestic Market share which has brought them to the enfeebled financial position they Are now in. Now we can assume that the manufacturers meeting in Chicago a the Detroit big three and the japanese big five a Are not thinking of anything so sinister As setting up a japanese american car open to Divide and control the world Market with the blessings of the Bush administration. On the other hand since these Guys Are supposed to be out competing and plotting to Cut each others guts out we can presume they wont sit around bowing to each other and drinking Tea. Unless these private individuals representing private corporate interest have secretly been Given plenipotentiary Powers by their governments to represent the Public interest we can assume that they seek agreement in ways that will be mutually beneficial to themselves and their companies. Of one thing we can be certain. They will not be there to represent the interests of american Consumers. That is the danger of supposing that the process of reducing the Trade deficit can be privatized and handled when a few industrialists a whose primary and perfectly honorable obligation is to their stockholders a get together to work things out. C newday Harry g. Summers  troops have Learned last resort role a safeguard the internal Security of the United  that along with defense of the american Homeland and the Protection of . Interests abroad is one of the fundamental duties assigned to the armed forces by Law. But it is not a Mission they savor. Unlike Many military establishments around the world the . Military has a Long and proud tradition of staying out of Domestic political affairs. Internal Security is primarily a matter for local Law enforcement agencies they say. When local police can to handle it the next level of response is by National guard forces under state control. Only As a last resort should Federal forces be brought into action to quell Public disturbances. Part of this aversion comes from the military a experiences earlier in this Century. In the summer of 1932, some 600 tank infantry and mounted cavalry troops from nearby fort George g. Meade md., were deployed to evict the a Bonus marchers irom Washington . Commanded personally by the army chief of staff Gen. Douglas Mac Arthur the forces soon restored order and evicted the protesters from their Camps. One of the cavalry commanders was maj. George s. Patton jr., and the press reported that one of the marchers who Haa won the Silver Star medal for saving Patton a life in Battle on the Western front had been trampled by Patton a horse. Be that As it May the juror Over using military troops against civilians and especially against world War i veterans severely tarnished the military image for years to come. Much of that reputation was restored in 1957, when again Federal troops were deployed to quell civil disorders this time the juror Over school desegregation in Little Rock. The Arkansas National guard was also called into Federal service the first time the militia had been federalized to quell a Domestic disturbance since 1867. But it would not be the last. Again in 1962, some 20,000 Federal troops were dispatched to put Down riots at the University of Mississippi in Oxford Over school integration and the Mississippi National guard was also federalized. Yet again in 1963 and 1965, Federal troops were dispatched to Alabama to protect civil rights. As rioting looting and burning broke out beginning with the Watts riots in 1965, the focus shifted from civil rights to civil unrest. In 1967, the 82nd and 101st airborne divisions were sent to Detroit to re establish order and in april 1968, Federal troops were sent to Baltimore Chicago and Washington ., to put Down riots after the murder of the Rev. Martin Luther King or. Before the recent los Angeles riots the last time Federal troops were used to restore order was on May Day 1971, when the 82nd airborne was deployed to Washington ., to quell anti War demonstrations there. Interestingly the 1965 riots in Watts were put Down without resort to Federal troops. The California governor instead called up More than 13,400 National guard members to Aid the los Angeles police department in restoring order. This time for reasons yet unexplained less than half As Many guardsmen were mobilized and they were exceptionally slow in moving into position. According to the Washington posts Lou Cannon one reason was that a commanders were not eager to place their troops in the caldron of South Central los  More plausible is that the National guard had been caught unaware by the severity of the riots. In any event it was that delay that prompted California gov. Pete Wilson to ask for Federal troops. The request was soon granted. Appearing on National television president Bush announced that he had a directed 3,000 members of the 7th infantry division and 1,500 marines to stand by a and went on to say a tonight at the request of the governor and the mayor i have committed these troops to help restore  following the Lead set in earlier disorders Bush also federalized the National guard a to place All those troops under a Central  As is usually the Case after the commit ment of Federal troops the murders burning and looting soon subsided. One reason is that by the very act of their commitment it is Clear that the nation has reached the limits of its patience. A let me assure you a Bush said a i will use whatever Force is necessary to restore  another reason is that Federal troops unlike local Law enforcement agencies and local National guardsmen Are seen As neutrals who have no particular a to grind. The task Force los Angeles commander army maj. Gen. Marvin l. Covault who also commands the 7th inf div Light at fort Ord calif., was no doubt relieved that he did not have to commit his forces to armed combat with the mobs. But there should be no doubt As Bush made Clear that he would have done so if order could not have been restored in any other Way. We done to like to think about it but military Force is the very foundation of the state. The Congress knew what it was doing when it ordered the military to safeguard the internal Security of the United states for without order there can be no United states. A lecturer in strategy and distinguished fellow of the army War College. Col. Summers is the author of the recently published on strategy ii a critical analysis of the persian Gull War los Angelos times Syndicate