Evening star., 1945-12-24
Merger Seen as Blow
To State Department
Observer Criticizes Proposed
Link of Military and
Foreign Policies
BY David Laurence

BY David Laurence
For several months opponents of the
late President Roosevelt have been try
ing to blame him for Pearl Harbor and
for provoking Japan's entry into the war.
| Not line of comfort came to those
holding that point of view from any,
thing adduced in the Pearl Harbor IN
vestigating Committee records or from
anywhere else until President Truman
himself, in his message to Congress ad-
vocatlng merger of the Army and
Navy, administered what many folks in
the National Capital are today con-
STRUNG to be reprimand or rebuke
| for both Mr.. Roosevelt and former
Secretary of State Cordell Hull
Here is the text of the passage that
is exciting comment:
"Our military policy, for example,
should be completely consistent with our
foreign policy. 1t should be designed to
support and reflect our commitments to
the United Nations Organization 1t
should be adjusted according to the sue
cess or lack of success of our diplomacy.
1t should reflect our fullest knowledge
of the capabilities and intentions of
other powers. Likewise, our foreign
policy should take into account our
military capabilities and the strategic
power of our armed forces"
Could Have Meant Retreat.
Whoever prepared this paragraph for
Mr.. Truman did him no service. It is
tantamount to saying that when Gen.
George C. Marshall and Admiral Harold
Stark begged Secretary Hull to postpone
the sending of any note to Japan In
/ November. 1941, which could be con-
/ sldered by the japanese as an ulti-
matum, he should have listened to them
/ on the ground that we were not pre-
pared for war and he should have al
lowed Japan a free hand to begin her
march to the Netherlands East Indies.
Mr.. Hull's contention was that the
japanese were bent on aggression ever
since they joined Germany in the
famous Axis alliance of 1910. and to
have refrained from expressing a firm
American view would have deliberately
encouraged Japan. However what
President Truman is saying, in effect. is
that American diplomacy or foreign
policy should retreat when the military
says so.
If he really understands the fun
meaning of what is rumored to have
been written for his signature by some
one with the War Department doctrine
in mind, then it means the President
failed to include in his merger proposal
one important agency of the Govern
ment, namely the State Department.
OF Interest Abroad.
Everything that Mr.. Truman says in
favor of a combined War and Navy
Department logically points to the need
for adding the State Department to
the merger so that the paragraph
quoted above can be faithfully executed.
Foreign policy under Mr.. Truman's in
depreciation becomes so interrelated
with military policy that it is difficult to
see how the substitution of one Secre-
tary of Defense for a Secretary of the
Navy and Secretary of War cures the
defect Mr.. Truman has recited. If any
thing, it gives the Secretary Of Stats
only one man to consult with instead
Of two and there Is always the chance
that one head might not be as good al
two.
The quoted paragraph will occasion
much comment abroad. 1t Is equivalent
to notifying the world that henceforth
they must read into our pronouncements
Of foreign policy reflection of mill
tary policy.
Point for Misunderstanding.
Up to now the State Department has
endeavored to minimize or disregard
our lack of preparation in a military
way and to emphasize instead where
necessary, our potentiality in resources.
Now Mr.. Truman's message marks out
a definite line beyond which hereafter
the State Department Is not to CO. But
this is not all. Mr.. Truman says, amaz-
ingly enough, that our military policy
should be adjusted according to the
success or lack of success Of our diplo-
macy"
Does this mean that if our diplomacy
with Russia, for example, seems to be
meeting with little success, this is to
be signal to our military men to begin
preparing for possible eventualities with
Russia? Mr.. Truman has certainly ac-
cepted from his War Department ad-
visers a point of view which will give
rise to much misunderstanding abroad
and will not help world peace. And as
for the friends of former Secretary Hull
and the late President Roosevelt, they
cannot be happy on reading the con-
tribution to an old "isolationist" op-
position which Mr.. Truman has just
made.
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