The Truman Way

Harry Truman had contented himself with guarded silences and careful speeches during more than a month of clamor and vilification over the removal of General Douglas MacArthur. But last week, breathing the same cocky belligerence with which he had campaigned in 1948, he suddenly started fighting back--Politician Truman's way. He began with a morning speech in the Hotel Statler's big grey and white Presidential Room; after only a minute or so of following a prepared text, he laid it aside, lifted his head, began to bounce on his heels and launched a burst of off-the-cuff oratory.

Spurred by quick applause from his audience (more than 1,000 delegates to the sixth annual National Conference on Citizenship), he used his text only as an outline and went on flailing away extemporaneously. He praised General Marshall and the Joint Chiefs, castigated "special interests" seeking to evade price controls, and people he called "pullbacks," who seek to cut down defense expenditures. With his voice heavy with sarcasm, he lambasted Robert Taft.

"The suggestion was made by one Senator, the other day, that we ought to cut down the goal for our armed forces by a half a million men," he said. "And this same Senator wants to go for an all-out war in China all by ourselves. At a time like this such a cut would . . . not only [be] foolish, it would be downright dangerous."

He preached the Truman gospel once more during the week; rising in a snowy white tuxedo at the capital's Armed Forces Day dinner, he remarked that while "we sit here tonight . . . partaking of food on white tablecloths and enjoying ourselves in other ways ... men are baring their breasts for liberty . . . You must quit your bickering here at home . . . you must quit playing petty politics ..."

Of the Korean War, he said: "We are fighting for time . . . for us. There is always an emphasis on the casualties in Korea . . . But did it ever occur to you that [they] will be one small drop in the bucket from one of those horrible bombs of which we talk so much?

"Think--think--think" he said, his voice low and almost shaking, "what a responsibility your President faces. If you would think, and think clearly, you would get behind me and help me win this peace ... It is up to you."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.