Sweet Taste

Trim, grey James Francis Byrnes tasted long denied sweets. Franklin Roosevelt had bypassed him as his choice for Vice President in 1944; for what it was worth, he was now next in line of succession to the U.S. Presidency. More important, Franklin Roosevelt had bypassed him as his Secretary of State, and Harry Hopkins had short-circuited much of Byrnes's advice when Byrnes was "assistant president." Jimmy Byrnes was now the President's chief adviser and chief policymaker.

Last week Jimmy Byrnes took the oath as Secretary of State, kissed the Bible, passed it on to President Truman to raise to his lips. Then Byrnes went right to work with a first official statement: there would be no basic change in U.S. foreign policy, no immediate changes in the State Department's personnel. But, he added, there was going to be a survey of the Department's structure. The slow-moving State Department quivered. Everyone who knew him knew two things about Jimmy Byrnes: 1) his dislike for professional diplomats of the stuffier stripe; 2) his liking for swift, direct action.

Into the State Department as a special assistant (and probably later as State's legal counsel), came quiet, unstuffy Benjamin Victor Cohen. This was a sweet morsel for both Byrnes and Cohen. After Dumbarton Oaks (which Ben Cohen had helped to draft), he had been slated for the State Department's top legal post. Despite Byrnes's insistence he had been blocked, had failed to get the support expected from Franklin Roosevelt. In deep disappointment, Ben Cohen had resigned but stayed in harness without Federal pay as Byrnes's general counsel in the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion.

Ben Cohen would be a key figure in the State Department. So, apparently, would be able Assistant Secretary William L. Clayton, at whose appointment last December left-wingers had raised a wailing cry of anguish. To Will Clayton, in Jimmy Byrnes's first week, went new duties. He was appointed U.S. member of the slow-moving United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration Council, which was bitterly in need of Businessman Clayton's energy and hard-headed smartness.

No one doubted that when Jimmy Byrnes returned from the Big Three meeting, more fireworks would pop. He and his good friend Harry Truman had already had several talks about the State Department's weaknesses would have plenty of time and opportunity on their European trip to find out more.

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