Private Eye

In Washington, "inside sources" frequently whisper that Harry Truman knows no more about the Korean war than General MacArthur chooses to tell him. Closer to the truth is the fact that the "sources" know no more about a peripatetic, crusty major general named Frank E. Lowe than the President chooses to tell them. Since last August, 65-year-old General Lowe, with Douglas MacArthur's cooperation, has been serving as Harry Truman's "private eye" in Japan and Korea.

Last week, in an office down the hall from MacArthur's own in Tokyo's Dai Ichi building, pince-nezed Frank Lowe squiggled the last line of another long, hand-written report to the White House, locked up a couple of presidential letters, and flew off to visit the ist Marine Division in southern Korea. Nobody questioned his comings & goings: the two-star general was armed with a presidential letter that authorized him to go where he chose, read what he wanted, and report what he pleased (although he had no command authority).

"Here I Am." "I am not an aide, understand," he explained. "There is some question whether I am an aid to anybody. I am serving the President in an executive capacity. The reason I am wearing a uniform is because the old man asked me to. I am not a spy out here. He asked me to help out and I love him, so here I am."

The President got to like and trust Frank Lowe during World War II, when Lowe was the Army's liaison officer with Senator Truman's investigating committee. Both of them had been World War I artillery captains in France. In peacetime, Lowe was a prospering businessman, and president of the powerful Reserve Officers' Association. He was also an old buddy of the President's hamhanded military aide, Harry Vaughan--who drew the job of deciphering his all but illegible reports from Korea.

Red Icicles. General Lowe's reports were likely to be written any place from a billet in Pusan to a 6-29 over the Yalu River. And they were likely to cover anything from the use of tactical aircraft to the problems of the individual footslogger. In the evacuation of Hungnam, Lowe came out in the last wave. There he saw a soldier accidentally shot in the foot by a careless machine gunner. Aware that the G.I. might be accused of shooting himself in the classic method of avoiding combat, General Lowe bustled up. "My name is Frank Lowe," said he. "If anybody ever questions your story of how you got shot, tell him General Lowe saw it and go ask him what happened."

But mostly he was the man who saw a lot and said very little--except to the White House. "I am willing to stay here until they have red icicles in hell," said he, "if it will help win this battle with the Communists, so we don't have that hundred years' war."

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