rn guard
leaders openly accepted federal supremacy during the period when the
Army and Air Force were segregated. But in the 1960's, long after (p. 594)
the services had integrated their active forces and seemed to be
moving toward a similar policy for the guard, doubts about federal
authority over a peacetime guard appeared. The National Guard Bureau
disputed the 1949 opinion of its legal counsel and the more recent one
from the Defense Department and stressed the political implications of
forcing integration; a bureau spokesman asserted that "an ultimatum to
a governor that he must commit political suicide in order to obtain
federal support for his National Guard will be rejected." Moreover, if
federal officials insisted on integration, the bureau foresaw a
deterioration of guard units to the detriment of national
security.[23-47]

[Footnote 23-46: For a discussion of earlier efforts
to integrate the New Jersey National Guard and the
attitude of individual states toward Defense
Department requests, see Chapter 12.]

[Footnote 23-47: Memo, Legal Adviser, NGB, for Bruce
Docherty, Office of the General Counsel, DA, 19 Jul
63, sub: Authority to Require Integration in the
National Guard, copy in CMH.]

[Illustration: AUTO PILOT SHOP. _Airmen check out equipment, Biggs Air
Force Base, Texas._]

The National Guard Bureau supported voluntary integration, and its
chiefs tried in 1962 and 1963 to prod state adjutants general into
taking action on their own account. Citing the success some states,
notably Texas, enjoyed in continuing the integration their units first
experienced during federalized service in the Berlin call-up, Maj.
Gen. D. W. McGowan warned other state organizations that outright
defiance of federal authorities could not be maintained indefinitely
and would eventually lead to integration enforced by Washington.[23-48]
Replies from the state adjutants varied, but in some cases it (p. 595)
became clear that the combination of persuasion and quiet pressure
might bring change. The Louisiana adjutant general, for example,
reported that considering the feelings in his state's legislature any
move toward integration would require "a selling job." At the same
time, he carefully admitted, "some of these days, the thing
[integration] is probably inevitable."[23