Blast from Tullahoma

During the eight weeks of the MacArthur hearing, the President had generally maintained a heavy-breathing silence, broken only by a few acid press-conference comments. But by the time he flew off to Tullahoma, Tenn. (pop. 7,521) this week to dedicate the Air Force's new 34,000-acre Arnold Engineering Development Center,* the hearing was sputtering to a close. Harry Truman took the opportunity of letting his critics know what he thought of them. Burden of his speech: everything the Administration has done in Asia was just exactly right; people who disagree are at least misguided, and those that aren't are just spreading "fear, slander and lies."

His speech--made on the first anniversary of the Korean war--was both a bluntly worded defense of his foreign policy and a truculent attack on his critics, including Republicans and General MacArthur, who, he charged, "have been trying to separate us from our allies." It was Harry Truman at his cockiest.

Sincere but Misguided. First he took up the charge that the U.S. had abandoned China to the Communists. "We can investigate the situation in China from now until doomsday, but the facts will always remain the same: China was taken over by the Communists because of the failure of the Nationalist government to mobilize ... to maintain its freedom. We gave [the Nationalists] more help than we gave Greece or Italy or Berlin. But ... the generals of ... China took our aid and surrendered." As for Korea: ". . . There was only one thing to do--and we did it."

In the face of the closed ranks of the free nations, he said, the Soviet Union's "great objective is to strip us of our allies . . . Unfortunately, there are some people in this country, too, who have been trying to get us to 'go it alone.'

"Some of these people are sincere but misguided. Others are deliberately putting politics ahead of their country . . . They have attacked the integrity of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They have maliciously attacked General Bradley, who is one of the greatest soldiers this country ever produced. They have tried to besmirch the loyalty of General Marshall. . . They have deliberately tried to destroy Dean Acheson--one of the greatest Secretaries of State in our history." Looking up, the President departed from his text to add: "Secretary of State Dean Acheson has done more for his country than all his slanderers put together--and a lot more." He went on:

"We have had a bipartisan foreign policy in this country since Pearl Harbor. I would like to keep it that way. I know a great many Republicans who want to keep it that way too. Now is the time to put a stop to the sordid efforts to make political gains by stirring up fear and distrust . . .

Take a Chance. "Look at the alternatives these critics have to present. Here is what they say. Take a chance on spreading the conflict in Korea. Take a chance on tying up all our resources in a vast war in Asia. Take a chance on losing our allies in Europe. Take a chance the Soviet Union won't fight in the Far East. Take a chance we won't have a third World War. They want us to play Russian roulette with the foreign policy of the United States--and with all the chambers in the pistol loaded.

"That is not a policy. No President who has any sense of responsibility for the welfare of this great country is going to meet the grave issues of war and peace on such a foolish basis as that."

The President also:

P: Laid the cornerstone of a new $40 million federal clinical center at Bethesda, Md. (see MEDICINE) and put in a fight talk for his socialized medicine bill. "If the people who have been blocking [it] for five years will come up with a better proposal--or even one which is almost as good--I'll go along with them. What I want is a good, workable plan that will enable all Americans to pay for medical care . . . and I am not concerned . . . with pride of authorship."

P: Warned Congress of a new national woe: that U.S. mobilization might well be hampered by a shortage of castor oil--basis of lubricants that can withstand the heat and friction of jet engines and the power plants of guided missiles.

P: Formally set up a three-man strategy board to coordinate psychological warfare, named Under Secretary of State James E. Webb, Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert A. Lovett and Lieut. General Walter Bedell Smith as members, and former Secretary of the Army Gordon Gray as director.

P: Signed the military manpower bill which lowers the draft age to 18 1/2 years.

P: Accepted the credentials of dark, fragile-looking Nong Kimny, first minister from the new independent state of Cambodia and heard--apparently without a tremor--that the Cambodians proposed to send him an elephant.

* Named for General Henry H. ("Hap") Arnold, head of the air force in World War II.

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