Question of Security

When Oliver Edmund Clubb, 51, retired from the U.S. Foreign Service last month, the business of his previous suspension and clearance seemed all settled and done with. A veteran diplomat who became chief of the State Department's Office of Chinese Affairs, Clubb got into trouble after Whittaker Chambers testified that he had once (1932) seen him in the offices of the Communist New Masses. In the course of defending himself against this not very grave charge, Clubb produced his personal diaries. These contained very candid entries about the Foreign Service and about Clubb's colleagues. These convinced the State Department Loyalty and Security Board that first examined the case that Clubb was too indiscreet to be a secure repository of secret information. Nevertheless, a month ago Clubb was allowed to retire with a pension of $5,800 a year; he announced that he had been cleared by departmental "processes," which everyone assumed meant State's investigating board.

A word from Secretary of State Dean Acheson would have corrected this assumption, but the Secretary kept mum. His enemies, notably Wisconsin's Senator Joe McCarthy, charged that Clubb had been cleared through Acheson's personal intervention. Last week Acheson felt compelled to tell the story of just what happened.

State's Loyalty and Security Board had, in fact, found Clubb a security risk (his loyalty was not questioned). This judgment was appealed to Acheson, who turned the matter over to an "experienced and trusted" aide. Though the Clubb case involved the highest ranking Foreign Service officer yet to come under inquiry, Acheson said: "I read [my aide's opinion] very carefully. I did not study the record because ... I do not have time to do that." On the basis of his aide's* recommendation, the Secretary overruled his board.

It was more fuel for the fires of congressional investigators and a probe of the Clubb case seemed likely. It was also another illustration of Acheson's inability or unwillingness to 1) believe that the question of internal security seriously concerns his department; 2) understand that the U.S. people are concerned about security in the Foreign Service, and expect him to tell them what steps he is taking to protect it.

* Identified as Nathaniel P. Davis, former U.S. Minister to Hungary.

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