Evening star. [volume], May 14, 1951, Page A-13, Image 13

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

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David Lawrence:
Deep Issues Begin to Show
MacArthur Controversy Is Becoming More Intense
As Emotional Flurry Gives Wav to Sober Study
The Mac Arthur earthquake
which arrived from Tokyo just
about a month ago has left a
series of tremors that show no
signs of abating.
The first impression that just
an emotional* disturbance had
been stirred up over a dramatic
personality is giving way to
something more fundamental.
If the only thing concerned
was the dismissal of a com
mander who differed on policies,
the episode would many days
ago have vanished from the
headlines. As it is the con
troversy is getting more and
more intense because deeper
and more lasting issues involv
ing war and national security
have been raided and the
Senate hearings nave revealed
much information hitherto sup
pressed. The broader questions
which now are developing may
be summarized thus:
1. Is American public opinion
going to accept the thesis that
somewhere between 250,000 and
350,000 Americans shall be com
. mitted indefinitely to the war
in Korea in which casualties al
ready have reached more than
65,000? This is far more than
an emotional question through
out the country, though at
times in official Washington the
indifference to our own casual- »
ties is quite surprising.
2. Is American public opinion
going to hold President Truman
and Secretary of State Acheson
responsible for failing to be
more assertive during the last
ten months when war materials
from British Commonwealth
countries were shipped to Red
China?
3. Is American public opinion
going to insist on a change in
the charter of the United Na
tions so that a war against the
United Nations must be shared
in by all members with pro
portionate sacrifices? Or is faith
in the future of the United
Nations likely to be weakened?
4. Is American public opinion
going to accept the proposed
appeasement plan whereby even
though the United States is
against the seating of Red
China, the assembly of the
United Nations by majority
vote can reward the aggressor?
Secretary Acheson has hereto
fore indicated that the Ameri
can Government will abide by
the vote of the other nations
on the issue of seating Red
China. This is called a “pol
itical” matter even though to
American troops in Korea it has
been a military matter ever
since the Red Chinese made
war on them last November.
5. Is American public opinion
going to accept a “war of attri
tion” in which constant em- *
phasis is placed on the number
of Chinese being killed but no
effort is apparently to be made
to end the war in Korea by
destroying enemy bases of sup
ply in Manchuria across the
Yalu River? This could become
an emotional issue, too, for the
American people in the past
have never accepted the idea
that they should fight wars to a
draw or ihat they should con
* .
tinue them in a single area in
definitely in the hope that the
enemy may get tired.
6. Is American public opinion
going to demand an overhauling
of the whole defense setup in
Washington with particular re
lationship to the haphazard way
that military advice is disre
garded or superseded by the
Department of State under the
convenient excuse that this is
all ‘'political” and concerns our
allies?
7. Will the MacArthur propo
sition be accepted that the na
tion which furnishes 90 per cent
of the men and resources in a
war should not yield to the de
cisions of its allies who make
token contributions?
These are the basic issues that
have arisen on the international
front and, in the end, both the
Departments of Defense and
State will come in for a con
siderable airing of their methods
of operation.
The Senate committee hear
ings are, moreover, only a fore
runner of more activity in other
directions. Gen. MacArthur,
having donned civilian clothes,
will accept invitations from
State legislatures and cities from
coast to coast and express him
self freely—not on political or
personal issues—but on the basic
question of making America
strong enough to protect its own
interests even if its allies should
develop with respect to Europe
some day, as they fiave toward
Asia, an unwillingness to take
the risks of a showdown with
Communist imperialism.
(Riproduction Rlchti Reterved)
Doris Fleesonr
Kansas Sticks to Eisenhower
G. 0. P. Leaders, at Tulsa at Least, Seem to Realize
They Would Rave Trouble Controlling MacArthur
KANSAS CITY, Mo.—Kan
sas Republicans will stand by
the home product, Gen. Dwight
D. Eisenhower, as a presiden
tial possibility until they get a
much clearer look at the pos
sible alternatives.
National Committeeman Harry
Darby told all comefff at the
committee’s Tulsa meeting last
week end that Kansas was nat
urally interested in Gen. Eisen
hower and he let it go at that—
publicly. What this diplomatic
evasion actually represented,
however, was a tug at the reins
of the party’s increasing com
mitment to Gen. Douglas Mac
Arthur, his person, his policies
. and his most vociferous back
ers, Col. Robert R. McCormick
and William Randolph Hearst.
The caution which the astute
Mr. Darby sought to instill in
his colleagues found substan
tial echoes. For example, the
Tulsa keynoter, witty Senator
Eugene Millikin of Colorado,
poured it on the Democrats
with a vim which literally- laid
them in the aisles but he care
fully and by design avoided the
appearance of a MacArthur
apostle. Senator Millikin has in
Washington attempted to exer
cise the same restraint on the
8enate Republican Conference
of which he is chairman.
There are various reasons for
their wariness.
One is Oen. MacArthur him
self. Republicans are intensely
grateful to the glamorous man
who has so suddenly crystal
lized for them America’s frus
trations with respect to Korea,
the domestic weaknesses of the
Truman Administration and the
threat of war. But the seasoned
political brains among them
realize they do not know him
well or what to expect of him
and that they cannot control
him.
All politicians are naturally
allergic to dream princes any
way. These make their con
tacts too directly with the
people and get out of hand so
easily.
Many Republicans, too, want
to know more about the Mac
Arthur policy and what it is
good for besides a stick with
which to whale Harry Truman.
They fear that war-party label
and its possible timeliness when
the election is a great deal closer
than it is now.
There seems to be very little
belief that Gen. MacArthur him
self will wish to run. It is not
ruled out but it is not expected.
Basically, Republican caution
t
rests on' a solid foundation—
that 1948 upset. They were
leery at Tulsa of boasting about
their prospects, rosy as they now
look. Americans of the present
generation will never forget the
great depression and Republi
cans will never forget Harry
Truman's feat.
Tulsa also demonstrated again
that only one candidate for
President—in either party, as a
matter of fact—is in there
pitching as hard as he can.
Backers of Senator Robert A.
Taft were on the job as usual,
cultivating the delegate garden.
Similar activity for Senator Taft
was reported from several States.
The Taft people are said to
feel that Gen. MacArthur's con
tribution improves the Senator’s
chances almost to the point of
making him inevitable. They
reason that Gen. MacArthur
eclipses Gen. Elsenhower and
that despite his differences with
Senator Taft on European in
tervention, he is closer to him
than to any othef prospect.
But the nagging doubt persists
among many Republicans that
Senator Taft can be elected and
that a wholesale commitment
now to Gen. MacArthur will be
a good buy a year from next
November.
Thomas L. Stokes:
No Change in 'the Human Side'
The Interests of Rank and File of Nation Still Subordinate
To Wishes of Powerful Groups With Influence
We are far enough In the de
fense program to take stock of
what is' happening to what the
late Franklin p. Roosevelt
called “the human side,” and to
give you a report on what your
public servants here are doing
about it—or not doing.
"The human side” relates to
the needs of the great rank and
file of Americans, those whose
sons and husbands fight the
. wars, little and big, and who
turn out the things with which
they’re fought. Again, as usual,
they are straining to keep up
with the rising cost qf every
thing they wear and eat, their
rent, their taxes, Federal, State
and local.
It can be reported that “the
human side” story is no differ
ent than in the defense pro
gram and war program of the
‘ early 1940's. So far as Con
gress—your public servant—is
Concerned, the interests of the
gTeat rank and files are sub
ordinated to those of powerful
groups. These, because of their
control of the facilities useful in
war and their political influ
ence in Congress and the de
fense program administration,
are getting, away , with all sorts
of, things under the guise of the
- defense program. Or, for an
other dodge, the prate of
“economy” and, behind that
cloak, they are getting Congress
to curtail all sorfs of programs
for the common public Interest,
necessary now, if not more so,
than in normal peace times.
The examples are spread out
before you, clearly visible to
the naked eye. For instance,
the way the House of Repre
sentatives limited the low-rent
public housing program to a
scant 5,000 units a year—when
it was specified at 135,000 a
year by Congress in the 1949
1 Housing Act. The real estate
lobby, indeed, is powerful, as
this shows and as will be plainly
demonstrated later when it
rises up to try to emasculate
such recent control as still ex
ists—and that will affect mil
lions.
This is intimate “human side”
stuff, grim facts in the family
budget, not to speak of the
accepted American tradition
that our people are entitled to
decent housing at reasonable
h
Electricity is another item in
your family budget and it is
also now an accepted American
tradition that everybody pos
sible should have it—and as
cheaply as possible. Look, then,
at what the House did about
that, whacking away at appro
priations for planned exten
sion of lines to homes and farms
—and to defense plants, too—
from existing public power proj
ects. The private utility lobby
really cracked the whip!
Food is a big item these days
in your family budget, and meat
is—or used to be—a part of that.
Well, the professional cowboys
are in town, with their big "see
gars” and fat expense accounts,
trying to get Congress to call
off Mike Di Salle and his meat
price control program. But they
are finding him a sturdy sort
of guy, though a city feller
without too many friends in
Congress, and there's a sturdy
fellow backing him up in Harry
Truman, who hasn’t got too
many friends in Congress,
either. So you’ll have to keep
watching Congress on this one.
For it is all set to clip Mr. Di
Salle and give the cowboys what
they want.
The wolf cry about "economy”
comes regularly from the rep
resentatives of big interests, in
dustrial and financial. Well, ap
propriations come out of taxes.
Let’s take a look at taxes, then.
Before Congress did anything
about the rank and file it hur
ried last fall to pass a law
under which corporations can
get wholesale tax write-offs for
national defense plants they
build. The way the National
*
Production Authority has ad
ministered that is a cautiop.
The write-offs are far morfe
generous than permitted in
World War II; in some cases
the plants are literally a gift
from the Government, which
means you, the taxpayer.
So far tax write-offs of $1.8
billion have been allowed, ac
cording to official Treasury fig
ures. They are way out of line.
If they had been anywhere near
reasonable the Government
wouldn’t need so much from the
rest of us for the defense pro
gram.
The House Ways and Means
Committee now is struggling
with the problem of writing an
other tax bill for the defense
program. It’s jacking up our
income taxes all along the line,
and sales taxes of all kinds, too.
But it refused to do anything
about cutting the 21 Vi per cent
depletion allowance for oil pro
ducing companies, which means
a flat reduction of that amount
of gross income before those
fellows even start to figure their
taxes. The Treasury recom
mended a cut to 15 per cent,
which would be generous. That
would bring in several hundred
million dollars, enough to pay
for housing and projected power
line extensions—and more.
But oil is too powerful around
your Capitol.
’Tis a sad story, mates, and
there’s more of it for which
there’s no room here. Talking
about it is like shouting in a
whirlwind, but it’s a relief to get
it off your chest every so often
to keep the record straight
about what goes pn here.
Dovtt &Un!
Henry McLemore:
Aims to Let Felines Alone,
One Lesson Was Enough
There is such a thing as-per
petual motion.
It is the brain of a wife.
It never stops thinking up
things for a husband to do.
The perpetual motion ma
chine of my wife came up with
a couple of new ideas today.
The first one was that I take
our two cats for a walk.
She said that Duffy and Bidey
needed more fresh air than they
were getting as well as the feel
of a sidewalk under their feet.
“Woman,” I said, “do you
think that I am going to put
leashes on a brace of cats and
walk the streets of New York
with them? I've done some fool
things in my life, but I have
yet to be caught exercising
cats.”
But she talked me into it, and
the next thing I knew I was
out on Park avenue with two
toms. They got exercise all
right, but not one-tenth as much
as I did.
The first thing we met was a
boxer as big as a barn, and his
sole aim in life seemed to be to
make a meal of cats. He charged
them, dragging his mistress
along as easily as if she had
been on skates, and Dufly and
Bidey accepted the challenge
with monumental hisses and an
uprising of fur that made them
look like expensive carpets.
I was in the middle, unfor
tunately. The boxer mistook my
right leg for a cat and gave it
it a chew that will have me us
ing iodine for six months. The
cats took me for a tree and
climbed straight up to my
shoulders where they called
that boxer. everything in the
feline language.
And while they cussed him,
they tor* bark off me. So I took
off. A cop saw me tearing along
with two cats on my back, and
mistook me for & cat thief. He
set out in pursuit, and every
second I expected him to pull
his gun and plug me six or seven
times.
But he didn’t shoot when he
caught me. Just told me what I
had told my wife—that any man
who would take two tom cats
out for a stroll was crazy.
Back in the apartment I emp
tied the medicine chest and col
lapsed. I looked like a fugitive
from a meat grinder.
When I had pulled myself to
gether, and was ready for some
sympathy, my wife said the cats’
claws were too long, that they
were ruining the couch and cur
tains, and would I please clip
them.
Men, don’t ever try to give a
cat a manicure. They don’t like
it. To a cat his claws are sacred
items and he will light to the
end to defend them.
Also, as you may have noticed,
cats have four feet. A man can
clip but one foot at a time. This
leaves the cat three free feet,
and that is just too many free
feet to handle. Honestly, I
would rather be up a telephone
pole with an unfriendly leopard
than try to manicure a cat.
“Don’t be a sissy, be a man,’
Jean called to me from behind
the TV set where she had taken
refuge. “I’d hate to have to ad
mit that I was married to a man
who couldn’t handle a little
ol’ five or six pound cat."
She isn't married to a sissy
or a man any more. She is
married to a shambles. I doubt
if I would bring a hundred dol
lars Isom a dealer in used hus
bands. My paint job is gone, my
fenders are crumpled, my head
lights are battered, and my hood
is a total wreck.
No more fooling with cats for
me. I aim to collect my Social
Security.
(Dlltrlbuttd by McNtutht Byntticttt.' Inc '
Constantine Brown:
Ch icken-Hea rted Cou rse Adopted
U. S. Leaders' Thinking Parallels State of Mind
Of British and French in World War II
There is a tragic parallel be
tween the political thinking of
the British and French gov
ernments during the “phony
war”—the first 8 months—of
World War II and that of our
own government in the present
Korean conflict.
This parallel does not apply
to military operations. While
the European Allies confined
their operations to a few local
skirmishes a few miles outside
the Maginot line until April,
1940, in the present struggle
our men are fighting a bitter
war with total casualties near
ing the 70,000 mark.
France and Britain plunged
themselves into a war in 1939
for which they were neither
militarily nor psychologically
prepared, in order to save Poland.
Then they Just sat down behind
the Maginot line and watched
the destruction of Poland.
The politicians were to blame
for their inactivity. Gen.
Maxime Weygand, France’s
“lighting general,” was exiled
,to command a “paper” army in
the Near East. Gen. Maurice
Gamelin, a good officer but
subservient to politics, was
placed in charge of the forces
on the European front. He fol
lowed the directives of the
politicos to mark time and do
nothing that might “anger the
Germans.”
At the hearings before the
Aymed Services and Foreign
Relations Committees of the
Senate it was disclosed last
week that President Truman,
obviously with the concurrence
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
sent Gen. MacArthur on Jan
uary 12 an over-all estimate of
the situation in which he ad
vised the Supreme Allied Com
mander that in the event of
Soviet intervention he should
fight, but bear in mind the
absolute necessity of localizing
and confining the conflict as
much as possible.
There were two reasons, it
was said, for this policy in
Washington: (1) the fact that
our Government believes we are
not prepared to meet the Rus
sians at the present time in an
open conflict; and (2) the pres
sure of our European allies—
principally Britain and France
—to avoid at any price a con
flict which would fully engage
the U. S. S. R.
Both these arguments would
be valid if the possibility of
Soviet involvement had not been
taken into consideration when
President Truman on June 26
ordered the repulse of the Red
aggression in Korea. The free
nations in the United Nations
concurred, although they, too.
must have been aware of the
calculated risk we were collec
tively taking.
The fundamental reason for
Gen. MacArthur’s ouster, as it
has developed so far in the
hearings, was neither his dis
obedience of the President’s
orders nor his reluctance to
adapt himself to the strategy
of the United Nations. It was
his military concept that “there
is no substitute for victory."
Both Washington and the
United Nations, believe in com
promise rather than outright
victory.
This same thought prevailed
in London and Paris between
September, 1939, and April.
1940. Throughout those months
of the phony war the civilian
leaders in Britain and France
believed that after Hitler had
taken Poland, and possibly some
other small nations, he would
call off the war if offered a
political compromise which
would save the faces of the
British and French govern
ments.
The political leaders of the
two European countries failed to
realize that compromises are
possible before the shooting war
starts. But once the armies have
been set in motion, and one side
sees victory within its grasp,
the only possible compromise is
surrender by one side or the oth
er. This unquestionably was in
Mr. Roosevelt’s mind when he
..
announced the Allied peaca
terms at Casablanca in 1942:
“Unconditional surrender.”
Once more we are adopting
the philosophy of chicken
hearted allies. Our generals in
the field in Korea are ordered
to fight a defensive war and not
to extend the conflict area, lest
we anger Moscow.
Our leaders believe that if tha
United Nations forces can “re
sist aggression” on the battle
field, we may force the en
emy to come to terms because
of the heavy losses he is suffer
ing. Even this last military con
cept seems without foundation
today.
How can we, with a very limi
ted force, reduce the enemy,
whose manpower exceeds ours
by at least 10 to 1. According to
official figures, our side—in
cluding the Allied token forces
and the Repoblic of Korea ar
mies—have lost so far some 300,
000 men. According to our esti
mates, which are based on prob
. abilities rather than certainty,
the enemy has lost 800,000.
The Reds still have ample
reserves to throw into the bat
tle, even if they are not fully
trained. Thei" main weakness is
logistic and, in accordance with
directives from Washington and
the United Nations, our com
manders cannot exploit that
weakness, because it might an
ger the USSR by disturbing their
plans to dominate Asia.
LOUIE
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