Three-Hat Harriman

Last spring and summer, in presenting its Mutual Security program to Congress, the Truman Administration insisted that its foreign aid operations were running as smoothly as a jeweled Swiss watch. Congress thought foreign aid administration needed major repairs. It did away with the ISAC (International Security Affairs Committee), which had the duty but not the authority to settle disputes between the State Department, Defense Department and ECA. Instead Congress created a Mutual Security Agency whose director would have policy control over both military and economic aid, and the power, through Cabinet rank, to make it stick. MSA would also take over all the functions of ECA.

To be director of MSA, President Truman picked his longtime foreign policy troubleshooter, W. Averell Harriman. This week Harriman blew in from Europe to take the oath of office. Henceforth Harriman will wear three hats. As policy coordinator, he will keep his old office and a staff of no more than 30 in Washington's dingy "Old State" building. As boss of economic aid operations, he will give his deputy, now acting ECAdministrator,

Richard Bissell, pretty much of a free hand. Harriman will also carry out the Battle Act (named for Alabama Congressman Laurie C. Battle), which calls for clamping down on trade of vital materials behind the Iron Curtain.

After spending about four days in the U.S. getting the gears in motion, Mechanic Harriman will be set to hop on his plane and, as suddenly as he had come, bounce back to Paris.

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