Evening star., 1950-03-28
Blind Men on Parade

senator brlQgeS OF New Hampshire mas SAID
that "a number" of Republican Senators are
going after" Secretary Acheson. This will take
the form of a series of public attacks, and the
parade" he says will begin this week.
The New Hampshire Senator has not named
those who will march in his parade Perhaps
it does not matter. For the marchers, whatever
their names, will be easily recognized as the
blind following the blind.
These Republicans do not see that in going
after" Mr. Acheson they really are tearing down
the foundations of our national security. There
is no doubt that they see a political issue from
which it may be possible to torture some partisan
advantage But they cannot or will not see the
larger picture; they do not understand that the
hopes of free men everywhere are linked insepa-
rably to the prestige of the United States, and
that they can chip away at that prestige only
at the price of crippling this country's capacity
for leadership in the decisive struggle now under
way throughout the world.
If they cannot see this, it is not tor lack OF
evidence. Here in Washington, the capital of the
free world, q woman is loosely accused, without
proof, of disloyalty. And she is Immediately
assailed in her home with anonymous phone
calls, with threats, and with demands that she
move out of the neighborhood or be carried out
in box. If it has come to this in our own city,
what are we to expect in other parts of the
world? How can we suppose that our friends in
other lands, constantly exposed as they are to
substantial threat of Communist aggression, will
be able to sift the real from the unreal, to know
where the line should be drawn in our perform
ance between truth and shabby political fiction?
Can we blame them-will Senator Bridges and
his followers be able to disclaim responsibility
If in the end our friends abroad should conclude
that the men in charge of our foreign relations
,1,etef
sympathizers, and that it is not safe to follow
their lead?
There are some Republicans who will not be
found marching in Senator Bridges parade.
Senator Vandenberg will not be there. Nor will
Henry L. stimson one OF the party's distinguished
elder statesmen, who has served his country well
both as Secretary of State and as Secretary of
War It is not likely that Senators Knowland
and Smith will be among the marchers Another
who will not be there is Representative Nixon,
who had big part in turning up the facts in
the Alger Hiss case.
These men, and there are others like them in
the Republican Party, do not believe that Mr..
Acheson is infallible. In their various ways they
have differed with him-strongly on some issues.
But they realize that one Of the surest ways to
bring on another war Is for the Republican
Party to lapse into role OF negative opposition,
a role in which partisan advantage has higher
priority than the security Of the Nation.
The hope is that the number OF this COM
pany will grow, that more Republicans will stand
up and say that they refuse to join Senator
Bridges parade. This will not come about If tie
President and other ranking Democrats fail to
do their share. But if Mr.. Truman and his aides
will refrain from cheap politics in the forthcom-
ing campaign speeches, and If few more
prominent Republicans will assemble under the
standard which has been raised by Senator
Vandenberg and his associates, the parade Of
the blind may yet turn out to be an uninpressive
spectacle.