Evening star., 1944-09-15
Dewey Held Mistaken
On Pacific Charges

vi FOCtIIC NnoI9eS
Decisions on Macarthur Supplies
Made by Staff Chiefs, Says Writer
By David laurence
Gov. Dewey made an unfortunate
mistake-perhaps the first In his cam
speaking tour-when he attacked
President Roosevelt for allegediy deny.
ing aid to Gen. Macarthur In the South
west Pacific. The New York Governor
says that since Gen. Macarthur Is mo
longer . political threat" supplies can
be speeded to the Southwest Pacific.
This Is not In accord with the facts.
II Gov. Dewey had had better sources
Of information in Washington, he would
have learned that whatever decisions
of strategy have been made or whatever
allocations Of supplies have been deter
mined on were the nonpolitical. i'm.
personal decisions of the joint United
States chiefs Of staff 50 far As areas
were concerned. and not the decisions of
Mr.. Roosevelt.
He would also have learned that the
so-called Macarthur plan for operating
the war in the Pacific has been opposed
by the United States Navy high COM
mand for months. This opposition has
had nothing to do with politics or Gen.
MacArthur's position.
Almost everybody who has studied the
warfare in the Pacific knows that from
the beginning there have been differing
lines OF strategy proposed and that 1t
was very difncult, for example, to get
the Army Air Forces to believe that
much OF their planes and supplies should
be diverted from Europe. This was due
to q deep-seated conviction that Ger
many should be beaten first, possibly
from the air, and then attention should
be given to the Pacific.
Never Any Politics in 1t.
II Gen. Macarthur and his sta1 ON
GERS were disappointed some months ago
In the amount of supplies then being
given them-it Is not the case now-they
had only the decisions of the United
States joint chiefs of staff to blame.
There never was any politics in it so
far as the high command of the Army
or Navy was concerned.
Gov. Dewey might better have made
his point in connection with the de-
cisions reached as between the Prime
Minister of Great Britain and President
Roosevelt. 1t has long been believed in
Washington, for instance, that Mr..
Roosevelt on more than one occasion
has conceded point of global strategy
to the British Prime Minister over the
protest Of his own chiefs Of staff.
Gov. Dewey, of course, suffers under
the disadvantage of not knowing what
goes on or has gone on as between the
Prime Minister of Great Britain and the
President of the United States. The
work of these conferences Is not only
conducted secretly, but, so far as Is
known, there are no records made of
what Is said between these two heads
Of states.
The military men, to be sure, know
when decisions have been reached and
when, OF course, they have been re-
versed. There have been some impor-
tant reversals of the point of view Of
the United States chiefs of staff, but
these have been solely because of the
pressure of the British Prime Minister
to get the war in Europe over with first.
No one can justly say, however, that
the British government has not wanted
the Japanese beaten as quickly as pos
sible. though there has been some
pointed criticism here that the British
government failed to mount the proper
expedition from India to Burma and
thus has delayed operations against the
Japanese because of the meager aid
given to China.
Time Will Tell Story.
In time more of the story will come
out, but again 1t is not a matter that
has anything to do with domestic poll
tics in the United States. 1t has more
to do with the persuasive powers of
the British Prime Minister and the
anxiety of Mr.. Roosevelt to preserve
Allied solidarity all along the line. by
acquiescing. History may prove that
Mr.. Roosevelt was mistaken in some of
these judgments, but nobody will be
able to prove that they had anything
to do with domestic political considera-
ton or any other kind of partisanship.
It's bad enough to have Mr.. Roose-
velt going around the country giving
the impression that he is the great
master of military strategy which, Of
course, he isn't. Military men resent
the artificial impression being built up
in this campaign that Mr.. Roosevelt Is
running the war. But 1t would be an
even worse mistake If Gov. Dewey fell
into the trap of trying to discuss in
public the personnel of military COM
mand.
Undoubtedly the public deserves to
be told more about the Pacific war.
There Is no question, for instance, more
important to the American people than
the length of the war against Japan.
There are more than $500, 900 American
boys involved in the Pacific war. Mothers
and fathers Of these boys are entitled
to know why the war against Japan is
going to take at least two years longer
and who Is responsible for the delays
and the tactics that have now deprived
US OF the help of China and have prac-
tically handed us situation in which
the United States Navy is going to have
to hold the bag.
That's more to the point than the
alleged influence of q one-time political
rivalry between Gen. Macarthur and
Mr.. Roosevelt.
Reproduction Rishts Reserved.)