Evening star., 1953-11-22
Trumon's SoIvo

The first week of the White case
ended on a mixed note of high
drama and low comedy. The
comedy lay in the complete col
lapse of plan by Representative
Velde'S House Un-American Ac-
tivitieS Committee to "get into the
act" with set of "juicy hearings.
Mr.. Velde's star witnesses, former
President Truman, former Secre-
tary of State ByrneS, and former
Attorney General Tom Clark, re-
fused to honor his subpoenas.
The high drama came when Mr.
Truman announced he would go
before the television cameras on
Monday to explain his version of
the White case to the American
people.
Though Mr.. Truman's time was
not what the televiSion industry
calls "Class A" Che spoke beginning
at II o'clock Monday night he
had a tremendous audience.
Wednesdays Variety" the Bible
of show business, carried a story
headlined, Humans 49," a cryp-
tic way of saying that an esti-
mated IL million sets were tuned
in on the former President.
Reaction to what he had to say
was mixed. 1t lis doubtful that
any case-hardened partisans of
either side had their views
changed. Aficionados of the Tru-
man "give- -'em- hell" school of ora
tory found him at his best, how
ever-hopping mad and mincing
no words.
The Truman version boiled down
to this:
. About the subpoena: Many
people had urged him to answer
the Velde summons, and "it was
an attractive suggestion and ap-
pealed to me-" But it would have
undermined the basic position of
the presidency, and that he would
not do.
. About the charge: The former
President characterized it as an
allegation by Mr.. Brownell that !
knowingly betrayed the security
of the United States" This charge
was false, and "Mr. Brownell must
have known it was false at the
very time he was making it," Mr.
Truman knew of the investigation
of Communist activity but did not
learn of specific allegations against
White until February, 1916. This
report showed serious accusations
=. against White, but it pointed
out that it would be practically
impossible to prove these charges
with the evidence then at hand"
Immediately, Mr.. Truman sent
the report to the then Secretary
of Treasury Vinson with a note
saying he wanted to discuss the
matter with Mr. Vinson and Mr.
Byrnes.
Consultation Ordered
Even before the February report
was rendered, the administration
had been planning to transfer
White to the International None
tary Fund. Whites appointment
was confirmed by the Senate
shortly before Secretaries Byrnes
and VinSon met with the PreSi-
dent. The President asked Secre-
tary VinSon "to consult with the
appropriate officials of the Gov
ernment and come back to me
with a recommendation"
The upShot of these consulta-
tions was that the appointment
should be allowed to take it's
normal course" This was done to
avoid disturbing an FBI investi-
cation into a large number of
similar cases. 1t was felt that
"any unusual action with respect
to Mr.. Whites appointment might
well have alerted all the persons
involved to the fact that the in
vestigation was under way and
thus endanger the success OF the
investigation"
The FBI report on White did
not fall on deaf ears, as the Re-
publicanS had charged. Originally,
he had been slated for "the top
managerial position" in the Fund,
4