Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1950-06-09
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| lM@ e@tw 1 t..''E@s
Truman Dinner
COME TIME before leaving on
~ his whistle-stop trip, President
Truman held a hush-hush dinner
with one of his most vigorous po-
litical enemies-Senator Brewster
of Maine.
The dinner was held not in the
White House, but at the Carlton
hotel. And it was the President
who inspired the meeting. He and
Brewster had worked together on
the old Truman committee, once
had been warm friends.
Chief result of the Carlton dinner
was a challenge to test out the
Fair Deal. Brewster is chairman Of
the Republican senatorial campaign
committee, and has the job of cleo
ting as many COP senators as pos
sible next November
Knowing this, Truman chal-
lenged: "I'll lay my program
out and you lay your program
out, and we'll have show
down."
Brewster agreed.
Though they didn't actually plan
it that way, part of the showdown
is coming right now. Truman is
now putting his policies before the
public, while Brewster has been
busy lining up speakers to refute
him. He has already lined up Taft
for speech in Chicago, Wherry in
Nebraska, Hickenlooper in Iowa,
Morse in Oregon, and congressman
Keefe in Wisconsin.
Brewster says the battle, Matched
over the dinner table at the Carlton
hotel, will continue until November.
Aeheson's Big Problem
Before Secretary of State Acheson
left for the big three conference,
he had report form the Orient
indicating that French Indo-China
was the most vital area in prevent
ing the spread of communism.
The report came from Ed Dickin-
son, ace trouble-shooter for ECA
administrator Paul Hoffman. State
department officials concur with
Dickinson's views.
They believe that If commu-
nism once takes over Indo-
China, then Burma, the Ma
lays, Siam, India and Indonesia
will also fall, making all of the
orient Russian sphere of in
fluence.
Furthermore, it is believed that
this is Moscow's chief goal. For
the Red army today lacks oil,
gasoline, tin and rubber. All these
things are to be obtained in the
wealthy area lying south of French
Indo-C China.
That is why Indo-China is one of
the toughest jobs facing Acheson
and also why he met it head-on fol-
lowing his arrival in Paris. Here
are some of the factors he still
has to contend with:
l. THE US. SENATE is HOT
AND BOTHERED ABOUT CHINA,
but not Indo-China. This may be
because of the well-heeled Kuom-
intang lobby which has spent thou
sands in Washington influencing
congress. Whatever the cause,
when Acheson publicly proposed
aid to Indo-China, he was rebuked
next day by Senator George of
Georgia who wanted to know who
was going to vote the money.
2. The FRENCH ARE A HAND
leap. French administration of
1ndo-China in the past has been
inefficient, corrupt, imperialistic,
The natives don't like them, shoot
down French troops at night if they
stray mile or so outside of towns.
3. INDO-CHINA is SPLIT AMONG
VARIOUS FACTIONS. There is no
love for Emperor Bao Dai, one
time Paris playboy, whom the
French have set up as ruler. There
is also bitter hatred for guerrilla
leader Ho Chi Mini and his
scorched-earth policy.
Possibly the United States
could handle the situation bet
| ter without the French. But that
would eliminate one of our old
est allies. Thus Acheson has
the senate to buck on one hand,
the French on the other and the
Communists all around them.
John [. Lewis Purge
John L. Lewis, Republican, has
been busy backstage trying to
purge a Democrat. Rep. Anthony
Cavalcante of Pennsylvania. Lewis
Is sore because Cavalcante demand
ed that district four of the United
Mine Workers have local autonomy
and the right to elect their own