Evening star., 1951-05-16
Bradley Hearing
'He|dUpbyBatt|e
Over Secrecy
Truman Supports
General in Refusal
To Reveal TuIks
BY Cecil Holland and
John A. Giles

An acrimonious dispute over
whether confidential White House
conversations should be disclosed
today engulfed the Senate COM
mittee investigating the Mac
Arthur controversy and caused
postponement until Monday of a
second round of testimony by Gen.
Bradley, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff.
Yesterday afternoon Gen. Brad
Iley refused to answer questions
Irelating to conversations he had
with the President in his capacity
las an adviser. The issue of re-
quiring him to answer under
threat of contempt action was
settled for the day by a ruling of
the chairman of the committee.
This morning the controversy was
renewed by motion to appeal the
Ichairman's ruling to committee
vote. And at the same time the
White House announced that
President Truman backs. his top
military adviser.
White House Press Secretary
Joseph Short said:
"The President made the deci-
sion Gin regard to Gen. Mac
IArthu0 and the conversation
which led up to it in his business. :"
He said that he did not know
If Gen. Bradley had been in touch
with President Truman about the
matter.
Vote Due Tomorrow.
After nearly two hours of hot
debate. the investigating commit
Itee-Armed Services and Foreign
Relations-voted 10 to to excuse
Gen. Bradley.
The chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff left the closed
hearing room in the Senate Office
Building shortly before noon after
Having been asked the same ques-
ton which caused the controversy
and again declining to answer.
The committee recessed at
1890 pm. and Chairman Russell
told reporters there would be a
vote at ] pm. tomorrow, ON the
issue. The vote will be preceded
by three hours of debate, equally
divided between the two sides of
the controversy,
| Senator Russell said that Gen.
Vandenberg, Chief of Staff of the
Air force, will be the witness on
Friday. Gen. Bradley has en-
gagements on the West Coast in
connection with the observance
of Armed Services Day and for
that reason will not be able to
testify again before next week.
Russell Explains Question.
Senator Russell said the ques-
ton before the committee for de-
csion tomorrow was whether "a
committee has the power to COM
Ipel an advisor of the President to
disclose details of a conversa-
tion held on a confidential basis"
He added that he would not
charge now that there was poll
tics involved in the wrangling."
However. the feeling engen-
dered within the committee by
the issue were reflected in a COM
ment by Senator Fulbright. Dem
ocrat, OF Arkansas. Leaving the
hearing room, Senator Fulbright
told reporters he fear the Re-
publicans are trying to sabotage"
the investigation because they
don't like what is taking place"
The transcript of the closely
guarded hearings also showed
Senator Mcmahon, Democrat, of
Connecticut as saying that some
OF the Republican committee
members were trying to intro.
duce certain extraneous notes"
which should not be injected into
the investigation.
Senator Wiley. Republican, of
Wisconsin, quickly disputed this
and insisted that Gen. Bradley
unless the President prohibited
him, would be willing to tell all
the facts"
The committee became involved
(See r0Drr~,H