Evening star., 1946-11-01
Nonportison Foreign
Policy Endangered
Hanneean Seen Raising Question
of Administration Sincerity

Hanneean Seen Raising Question
of Administration Sincerity
By David Laurence
Some question IL arising concerning
the sincerity Of the Truman admins
tration In maintaining Q nonpartisan
foreign policy.
The question Is whether the admins
tration, although processing to seek the
cooperation Of the Republican Party.
is not actually engaged in undermining
that selfsame cooperation.
The administration controls the DEM
ocratic National Committee The ma
tional chairman Is q member OF the
cabinet of President Truman. Yet in
a radio address Chairman Robert z.
Hannegan uses the following language:
do you know, Mr.. and Mrs. America.
that vote for the Republican candidate
in your State is also a vote for Taft Of
Ohio? That it is vote to supplant
Alben Barkley as the Senate majority
leader? And when you vote for Taft,
do you know what'you are voting for?
"If your son fought for the defeat Of
Hitler In the late war, then you should
know that Taft said: 7 believe we could
have negotiated peace with Hitler
dominant on the continent
"If you believe world cooperation is
our only hope of avoiding World War III,
then you should know that Taft voted
against American participation in the
United Nations
Voted for 1t.
The last statement is a bald untruth
and quibble. Senator Taft did not vote
against American participation in the
| United Nations. He voted for it. He,
along with other members Of the Senate,
opposed using armed forces without the
consent to Congress, but the Democratic
national chairman does not make that
point or mention the Democrats who
took that view
The broad accusation that "a vote for
the Republican candidate in your state
is also vote for Taft" is also q mis-
leading statement. The assumption that
Taft will be chosen leader of the Senate
is by no means agreed to by those who
know the situation in the Senate. Ger
tainly neither the majority nor the MI
nority leader controls the votes Of in
| dividual Senators on foreign policy.
| 1t is a manifest twisting Of the truth
to say that in every State where
Republican candidates for Senator are
running a vote for them is vote for
Taft or an affirmation of the views Taft
has expressed about Germany or any
thing else. 1t is unfair to men like Col.
Henry Cabot Lodge, jr., Republican
nominee in Massachusetts,, who just took
off his uniform, and unfair to Senator
H. Alexander Smith, Republican, of New
| Jersey, whose record in world co-opera-
tion in the Senate has been unexampled.
1t is unfair with respect to many other
Republican nominees as well.
Wallace Speeches . Factor.
| But the attack by the Democratic ma
| tional chairman is only part of the dis
play of bad faith which the administra-
ton is showing toward the Republican
| Party, whose cooperation 1t makes so
! much of when 1t addresses foreign ma
| tions. It will be recalled, for instance,
| that Henry Wallace was dismissed from
the cabinet by President Truman for
| attacking the bipartisan foreign policy
| of the administration. 1t will be recalled,
| also, that the country was advised that
the President sided with Secretary
Byrnes and Senators Vandenberg, Re-
| publican, and Connally, Democrat, in
| their handling of foreign policy matters.
| Yet former Secretary Wallace Is out
making speeches with the blessing Of the
Democratic National Committee. In one
of his Western speeches this week Mr..
Wallace said:
| "I refuse to think that Secretary
Byrnes and the State Department would
have gone so far in risking war with
Russia if they had not been needed into
| 1t by Senator vandenberg and the mill
tary.'
This is an indirect way of calling Pres
ident Truman o prevaricator. for Mr..
Truman has asserted that the United
States is not engaged in any such role
| In our relations with Russia and that
the foreign policy of the United States
Is made by him and Secretary Byrnes
Why does the Democratic National
Committee continue to sponsor speeches
by former Secretary Wallace unless it
wishes to benefit from his attacks on the
Republican Party in those States where
left-wing support Is being sought by
the administration?
Mr.. Hannegan denounces communis-
tic support at the same time the Demo-
cratic National Committee is evidently
not averse to gathering votes through
the Wallace speeches among the COM
munistic elements In America to whom
those speeches make persuasive appeal.
The congressional campaign does not
| reflect credit on the leaders Of the DEM
ocratic Party. The blunders being made
| will only lead to bad feeling when Con-
| gress reconvenes and may conceivably
| hurt the bipartisan cooperation which
| Is so essential to the success OF Americas
policies in world affairs.
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