REF ID:A39364 

lo~ :£ "1 S,t t- i 3 

Matter Of Fact •- • • By Joseph and Stewart Alsop 

Operation' Candor-------------=----

AFTER INTERMINABLE 

wavering, the Eisenhower Ad· 

ministration has at last de· 

cided to tell the country some of the truth about the na- tional situation. The decision was taken before the Kremlin ___ tesied its first hydrogen bomb, 

but this event has further 

strengthened the hands of the 

advocates of "Operation Candor," as the project is called 

in the Administration's inner 

circle. 

The President will do the 

talking. The time, the place 

and the medium are now under 

discussion. The method. most 

favored at the moment is an informal television talk, or per· haps a combination of a tele· 

vision talk with a full dress 

radio speech. 

Such -is the final upshot of a debate that has been going on inside the American govern· . ment since the final period of 

the Truman Administration. 

Certain offiCials of the old 

psychological strategy board were the first to insist that it was dangerous to keep the 

country in · ignorance. of the 

threat to national survival ilil· 

plicit in the· steadily growing 

·Soviet air-atomic capabilities. They were also t'he first to 

argue that a frank White 

House briefing was the only 

way to get the truth across to 

the country. 

Hence ~he problem was on the National Security Council 

table, so to speak, when Presi· 

dent Eisenhower took office~ 

Active discussion of "Operation Candor" began early mid· . winter. In the spring, at least 

-'one major meeting of the Na· 

ti-onal Security Council' was de- . voted_to the subject: and Drs. 

J. -Robert Oppenheimer and 

Vannevar Bush were invited on this occasion to make the case for being candid. 

Nonetheless, the wavering the United States within 18 tO 

continued into mid-summer. 24- months. 

And even now,, there are cer- But the country at large tain leading members of the plainly does not know about all 

Administration who hope that this. In fact when Dr. Gallup's the Security Council. decision pollsters asked their victims 

-for such it is-may yet be re- whether they thought their 

versed. - cities could- be destroyed by 

,,._. Soviet atomic bombs, less- than 

TH:E ARGUMENT most often a third thought there was much 

used by the opponents of frank- risk. In short three quarters of the people of the United I ness is the highly specious one, States are living in a dream of 

"that the country knows every- false security. 

thing but the real military se- ,,.._, 

crets already." It is true, of THOSE WHO HAVE wished 

course, that the real national this dangerous dream to be pro- situation is well understood by longed fall into thre.e catego- a small number of persons'who ries. There are the neurotic 

have struggled to find it out. It advocates of ."maximum secu- is also true that some of these rity," common in the Pentagon ! 

persons have done their best to am~ now gaining gl'.ound at the : make the hard facts more Atomic Engergy Commission, 

widely understood. there are the State Department 

But this is not only ·specious; officials-George F. Kennan 

it is also irrelevant. The coun- used to be one of them-who 

try as lj, whole does not yet un- fear that the American people i 

derstand the national situation, will demand all kinds of danbecause the country's leaders gerous and impulsive remedies : have thus far persisted in con- if they are told the plain truth. 

cealing or mis!-"epresenting the Finally, there are the high Ad· 

hard facts known to the ex- minstration ·officials who think 

perts. In' difficult and unpleas- .'high taxes are more dangerous 

ant technical matters, the coun- than atomic bombs. 

try does -not listen to every This last group is of partlcu· ' cha~cr. voice. The country's lar importance. They think 

leaders must inform the coun- that if the truth is told, a strong 

try. and no one else can do. so. demand will immediately be 

The proof of this has· just felt for heavier defense outlays 

been given, in dramatic form, on air defense and for other 

by the inquiring Dr. Gallup. purposes. In this they are un- The experts know very weU doubtedly correct. . that the Soviet Union already Maybe the promised presipossesses the atomic bombs for dential cando~ will not be so a crippling attack on this court· very candid after all. But if he 

try. They, know also that the is fully candid, it can be taken 

Soviet· long range air arm is as certain that the current· ap-1 entirely capable of delive~ng preach to defense problems will· 

the bombs. They know fur· no longer be tolerated. And it 

ther that unlE)SS drastic meas- is hard to believe that the de· 1 ures are taken to improve our cision to be candid does not 

air defenses, the Kremlin will imply a further decisiou. to 

be able to make a totally dev· make a different approach to 

a,stating air-atomic attack on defense.