The Beachheads

Springtime is the season of battle. As spring drew near, a battle for political beachheads quickened and spread. Last week U.S. diplomatic operations reached from Latin America to the Far East, from central Europe to the Aegean and to the focal point of all political dynamics: Moscow.

Greece, Korea, Hungary. Secretary of State Marshall flew to Moscow (see INTERNATIONAL). There he would wage the main battle over Germany. But before he left he moved toward other beachheads which were strategic secondary points in the conflict.

He examined an appeal from Athens, which came on the heels of Britain's announcement that she could no longer sustain Greece (TIME, March 10). He declared, with his eyes on Congress: "In the light of the world situation this is a matter of primary importance to the U.S."

He sent a vehement protest to Russia about Hungary, where Russian military authorities and Hungarian Communists have been undercutting and knifing a theoretically independent government. His note was moral reinforcement for Hungary's democrats. He examined and conditionally approved a new policy toward Korea, where past U.S. blunders had sent the forces of democracy into retreat (see Foreign Relations).

Then Marshall flew off, surrounded by aides and experts and trailed by his assistant, John Foster Dulles, whom the Russians hate.

Mexico, Geneva. Meanwhile another U.S. citizen, heavily burdened with foreign affairs, returned to the U.S. Harry Truman's diplomatic campaign in Mexico had secured that beachhead with great success. He paused at Waco, Tex. to receive an honorary degree from Baylor University and there made an earnest speech on behalf of his international economic program: "As a part of this program we have asked the other nations of the world to join us in reducing barriers to trade. . .". These negotiations are to be undertaken at the meeting which opens in Geneva next month. . . . [They] must not fail." Trade is a vital beachhead.

In his Sacred Cow, Harry Truman flew on to Washington. He had planned to go south again on a Caribbean cruise aboard the presidential yacht Williamsburg. Last week he canceled this trip.

For the President apparently realized that the worldwide struggle in which the U.S. is engaged needed close and constant attention. It was also borne in on him that he would need not only congressional support, but backing from the people.

Capitol Hill. Congressional reaction to the U.S. commitment in the Mediterranean was divided. One influential Senator felt that Greece was only a boil on the neck and what he wanted to know was how the Administration proposed to cure the disease which caused the boil. Florida's Russophile Claude Pepper thought the whole Greek problem should be referred to the United Nations (where any real solution would almost certainly be long delayed).

Ohio's Congressman Clarence Brown was skeptical of "mysterious buildups." The U.S. people, he said, want no imperialism and "will not support even an emergency step in that direction." It was time, he said, for "forthrightness."

This week Harry Truman decided to be forthright--to a degree. He again summoned to the White House a congressional delegation and, for one hour and 20 minutes, discussed the Greek problem with (according to Senator Vandenberg) "great candor."

The U.S., it was clear, must prop up King George's Government in Greece, whether it likes that royalist Government or not. Surplus U.S. military supplies in Germany may have to be transferred to the Army of Greece; $154 million must be advanced to provision Greek troops. In all, $250 million must be lent to Greece; $150 million must be made immediately available to Turkey. By such prompt and comparatively inexpensive devices, Russian expansion in the Mediterranean could be stopped.

Then the President prepared to tell the people about it--in a speech before a joint session of Congress.

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