Evening star., 1946-09-13
Wallace Talk Is Blow
At Trumun and Byrnes
Foreign Policies Regulated by
Commerce Secretary
By David Laurence

By Dapid Laurence
Henry Wallaces speech, presumably
in support of the candidacy Of Messrs.
Mead and Lehman for Governor OF
New York and United States Senator,
Is an amazing document. II 1t doesn't
lead eventually to the resignation Of
Mr.. Wallace as Secretary Of Commerce.
1t will be because President Truman
Is calloused to the humiliation he suf-
fers In seeing q complete Reputation
Of his foreign policies by the Secretary
Of Commerce in his cabinet.
For Mr.. Wallace not merely accused
Great Britain of insidious maneuvers
that he thinks may bring on war with
Russia, but he also accuses Secretary
Byrnes Of the State Department OF pur-
suing get tough policy" with Russia
which almost everybody in Washington
for several months has supposed was
in accordance with instructions from
President Truman himself.
The Wallace speech will confound
every one who has assumed heretofore
that American foreign policy had at
last become nonpartisan and that SEN
ator Vandenberg and the Republicans
generally were supporting Americas
policies as expressed by Secretary
Byrnes in his long and tedious nego-
tiations with the Russians In various
international conferences since VI day.
Drags In Gov. Dewey.
Mr.. Wallace drags in Gov. Dewey by
the most laborious method. He refers
to speech made several years ago
in fact, during the war-in which Mr..
Dewey said he favored British-Amer-
lean military alliance. That's the sole
peg on which Mr. Wallace now hangs
the address In which he says such an
alliance means making Britain "the
key to our foreign policy" and that I'VE
must not let the reactionary leader
ship Of the Republican party force us
into that position Then he adds In
the same sentence. as II there we're a
direct connection between the two
things, "We must not let British bal
ance-of-power manipulations determine
whether and when the United States
gets into war"
This is rather devious way to involve
Gov. Dewey and the Republican party
in the alleged provocation of a war of
which Mr.. Wallace thinks our ally.
Great Britain, may soon be guilty.
He adds:
Make no mistake about 1.-THE Brit
ish imperialistic policy in the Near East
alone, combined with Russian retalia-
ton, would lead the United States
straight to war unless we have a clearly
defined and realistic policy Of our own"
There Is no evidence that President
Truman has been rubber stamp as TO
British policy in the Near East nor any
suspicion that the Republican party
favors the British policy In that part of
the world So, for the sake Of some un-
| explained political purpose, Secretary
Wallace. though a member Of the cabi-
net of the President, has questioned the
motives and purposes of the govern
nlent of Great Britain. Even II he be-
lieves 1t, such indiscreet criticism cannot
come from a member of the Truman
capinet without making the task of
Secretary Byrnes more complicated.
ITO prevent war" continues Secretary
Wallace, land insure our survival In a
stable world, it is essential that We look
abroad through our own American eyes
and not through the eyes of either the
British Foreign Office or a pro-British
or anti-Russian press"
Speech approved"
But James F. Byrnes, Democrat. is
Secretary Of State-not Gov. Dewey or
any other Republican. If Mr.. Byrnes is
not looking at things through American
eyes, then Mr. Wallace's criticism must
necessarily be against the present Sec
retary of State.
The newsmen at the White House
have been told that President Truman
approved the Wallace speech in advance.
This seems incredible If Mr.. Truman
read it carefully and still approved.
then he is transparency more gullible
than he appears to be. Maybe for pur-
poses of the political campaign In New
York State, Mr.. Truman Is allowing a
member of his cabinet to become more
~ llldl has Dten.
The Wallace speech assumes that
communism and democracy are merely
two rival PHILOSOPHERS that can get along
together in the world Mr.. Wallace
favors giving Russia free hand in her
sphere of influence If Russia will keep
hands of our so-called sphere In Latin
America. Such bargain is exactly
what the Soviets have been aiming at.
When Mr. Wallace learns that COM
munism as an abstract philosophy is
not the issue but that brutal totali-
tarianism is the concrete action that has
robbed peoples in the Russian sphere
of their -four freedoms" maybe he will
regret his outburst at Madison Square
Garden. For the speech Is mischievous
and troublemaking aud can only en-
barrass the President and the Secretary
OF State in the relations of the United
States with other countries.
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