Evening star., 1950-10-12
Truman Sure 10 Gain
Spectacular Publicity
By Macarthur Visit
Idea of Trip Was Born
Aboard Presidential
Yacht on Recent Sail
By David Lawrence

bp D0Ufd Laurence
Political Washington, which in
cludes the strategists of both
parties. has just about recovered
from the shock it got when Presi-
dent Truman. without consulting
anybody, suddenly announced that
he was going to the Pacific to meet
General Macarthur.
The general observation is that
tha President has managed to-
clothe the visit with an interna-
tional Importance that nobody can
quite prove and with a domestic
Importance in the political cam
paign which everybody is quite
willing to concede.
For. the skeptics say, if the in
cident really had the significance
in world affairs that the announce
ment seeks to convey, then the
Secretary of State Dean Acheson,
would or should have gone to
the meeting. 1t just isn't ac-
cepted that Mr.. Truman is so
conversant with the details of the
important questions alleged toI
be under consideration that he
can sit in for his own Secretary of
State Conversely, if the men who
are accompanying the President
to advise him on matters of foreign
policy-Messrs. Averell Hartman,
Assistant Secretary Dean Rusk
and Ambassador Philip C. JessupI
are the people who really make
foreign policy nowadays, it tends
to rank Secretary Acheson as of
much less consequence than his
opponents believe him to be.
More Light on Subject.
While the last "a hours have
given an opportunity for wide con-
lecture, certain bits of news have
been released which throw more
light on the whole subject.
First, 1t was disclosed at the
White House that the idea of the
trip was born aboard the presi-
dental yacht on the recent weeks
cruise and hence was not the
carefully conceived plan of any,
body in the State or Defense De-
partments, where 1t might have
been suspected that policies of
such major character would ori-
glnate. The hasty summoning of
Messrs. Hartman, Rusk and Jes-
sup to pack their suitcases and get
aboard a plane to travel halfway
around to globe to participate in a
conference for which there might
ordinarily have been more prepa-
ration testifies to the impromptu
nature of the whole affair.
Second, the mayor of San
Francisco let the cat out of the
bag by saying he did not know
till someone in Washington told
him that he was expected to in
vite the President to make a
speech in the same opera house
where the U. N. was created in
1945.
The mayor of any city which
had that tradition to cherish
would have been delighted to
issue an invitation to the Presi- |
dent to speak. But the fact re-
mains the White House inspired
the speech idea and this can only
mean that some one with an eye
to political effects and publicity
In a campaign developed the
whole plan and Mr.. Truman ac-
cepted it promptly.
Spectacular Publicity.
From a political viewpoint, Mr..
Truman speaks in the area where
there has been much opposition
to his Far Eastern policy. But
the speech will be broadcast ma
tionally and 1t will have a larger
audience than otherwise would
have been the case because Mr..
Truman will be delivering it after
his talk with General Macarthur.
The purpose of course is to
Offset. if that is possible, the an
tagonism to foreign policy
which last January announced
that Korea would not be defended
and then reversed itself in June
without giving a word of warn
Ing to our military chiefs as to
the obligation to fight that would
be imposed on them. The casual
ties of more than $4,000 since last
summer attest to the tragic side
of our unpreparedness. More than
$50 billion were spent In five years
for defense.
The President, as Commander
in-Chief and Chief Executive, is
responsible for lapses in both
military policy and foreign policy.
1t is natural that he should take
the stump now to defend his ad-
ministration. 1t is natural, too,
that he should seek to bask bit
in the glamor that surrounds the
great general in the Far East.
After all, with the exception of
Stain, there is no other man in
the world that President Truman
could visit with such spectacular
publicity in the press, with pic
lures and newsreels and nation
wide radio hook-ups to tell about
the adventure.
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