Evening star., 1950-04-02

vmakers show puzzlement and con-
shington. They cannot understand
Id countercharges which are flying
tive branches of the Government.
oday in the minds of many Amer
those are made by the President
and Secretary Of State. But the
planners. who generally remain
out Of the limelight. are the diges-
tive tract of the policy makers.
They draft and present briefs to
the men who make policy, and
since they are specialists in par
ticular fields, the Secretary of
State, who often has only a per-
functory knowledge of details, is
guided in accordance with the
brief1ng he receives from his
planners.
The most typical example of
how specialists influence the
thinking of policy makers is to
be found in China. Secretaries of
State Byrnes, Marshall and Ache
son were guided by the briefing Of
their Far Eastern experts. They
had been told that the Chinese
Communists were nothing but
agrarian reformers, who had
nothing in common with Moscow.
This contention of the planners
seemed correct to Mr.. Acheson's S
predecessors. They knew that the
shrewd Stain had made light of
the Chinese Communists, both at
Yalta and Potsdam, comparing
them to American Communists in
their inefficiency as party workers.
Moreover, the Soviet dictator had
assured President Roosevelt at
Yalta sthat he was willing to help
Chang Kai-shek and pretended
to keep his word by signing a
treaty Of friendship with the Ma
tionalist leader a few months later.
China's Case Reviewed
The Far Eastern planners as
sured their politically minded
Superiors that during the days of
"global democracy" (Which, by
courtesy, included Russia until the
cold war started America would
not be true to its Jeffersonian
principles if 1t continued to sup
port the venal archaic Nationalist
regime. Friends of these planners
on the radio and in the press took
up this cry and kept harping on
the stupidity of supporting
Chiang's decadent regime.
Some top policy-makers, in
cluding President Truman him.
self, may have had misgivings
about that policy at time when
parts of China, at least, could have
been saved from Moscow's domi-
nation. But they preferred to
listen to the planners with dev-
astating results for our security
in the Pacific.
A similar situation existed be-
fore we befogged our policy in
China, with respect to some parts
OF Europe. It was not until late
1946 that the planners began to
suspect that Russia might not be
entirely on the level and might
seek some unwarranted territorial
ACKNOWLEDGMENT. Up to that time
all of our peace plans were made
with superb confidence, which
was characteristic of some State
Department officials who were
transferred from wartime agen-
cies. that Russia would play ball
to the end.
There were plenty of indications
that the Russian leopard had not
changed his spots. The advice
from wiser men was discarded as
coming from reactionaries who
had the wrong slant on the new
world" and wanted to create
trouble with the heroes of Stain
grad. Even the devious tricks of
the Soviet leaders, particularly
after the love feasts at Teheran,
Yalta and Potsdam, were not
taken as evidence that the
U. S. S. RS leaders like to
stretch" the written agreement.
Blanket Indictment Unfair
Human beings make events.
And the human beings who con-
Quoted the foreign affairs of the
United States during and since
the war have failed not only their
fellow-citizens but also the rest of
the peace-hungry world as we'll.
These are facts which have per-
meated the minds of many Amer
leans who still cannot understand
what makes our officials act as
they do. The American people
won them a full victory. All they
had to do was transform that
military feat into a lasting peace.
Why did they blunder when they
had most Of the trumps?
To the average American it
seems incredible that it was sheer
stupidity that cost us the fruits
Of victory and that we now must
grid ourselves to face a ruthless
and unscrupulous enemy. In the
light Of what has been disclosed
in recent months. there is a grow
ing suspicion that we have been
the victims of something more
than carelessness on the part of
those who organized our diplo-
macy during and after the war.
It is cruelty unfair. of course.
to blanket in the general indict-
ment the many honest and re-
sponsible men who have spent the