Evening star., 1953-01-18
By Bryson Rosh


White House Correspondent for the
American Broadcasting Co. and WMAL
and WMAL-TV.
ION December 81, 1945, I be-
came really suspicious of the
motives of the leaders of the
Soviet Union" President Truman
told me.
James Byrnes. then Secretary
of State, had just returned from
a conference in Moscow and had
reported to the President. After
that talk Mr.. Truman fully
realized the course the Soviets
would pursue.
President Truman told me this
and many other facts of his
torical interest in the course of
an exclusive interview in his
Office in the executive wing of
the White House. In the last few
days of his administration, the
President granted me this half
hour period as he had to a
number of other reporters who
had covered him throughout his
seven years in office.
Dragging Their Feet.
I asked the President what led
to his suspicious about the Sow
let intentions. He said, "They
were extremely slow in carrying
out the agreements we had
reached at various conferences"
"They were dragging their feet at
every turn" the President added,
why Stanton Griffis. our Am
bassador to Poland at that time
had to sneak one of our people
out of the country in the dead OF
night to prevent his arrest by
the Reds" All of that was in
dicative, the President said, but
the Byrnes report was the
clincher.
I opened the interview by tell
ing the President that I wanted
to concentrate on the PotSdam
conference. He said, That's all
right with me, go ahead and
shoot the questions"
I said that understood he was
the chairman of the Potsdam
conference and that Stain had
suggested he assume the post.
The President said, II was the
chairman, but it was automatic,
not by election. You see was
the only head Of state present.
Neither Stain nor Churchill were
heads of state, they were preml-
ers."
Only One With Agenda.
I asked him to confirm a story
I had previously heard that he
was the only conference partici-
pant with an agenda for the
meeting. He answered, THAT
was true, neither Stain nol
Churchill had a formal outline
of the subjects to be discussed.
The President added, my
agenda covered about IA or Il
points, II or IL of which were
promptly accepted by the othel
two principals to the confer
ence."
This meant that there wer'
three major stumbling blocks
the discussion of which con
sumed IL or 13 days of the IA
day meeting. The Presiden
named the items as Romania
Bulgaria and Poland. 1t wa
Russian intransigeance on thes'
three points and particularly Pc
lands grab of German territority
including the Silesian coal fields
that snagged and delayed com
plete agreement.
Mr.. Truman said that severa
times before the Potsdam Con
ference concluded he told Stali1
bluntly and pointedly, "as Pres
ident of the United States I will
never agree to this grab of Ger
man territory by the Polisl
government. nor recognize it a
an accomplished fact" Biting
off his words and with pride il
his voice the President added
"And we never have"
Tells of Atom Bomb.
AS we got deeper into our dis
cussion of the Potsdam Con
ference I asked the President
when and how he told Stair
about the successful atom bomk
test in the New Mexican desert
Mr.. Truman said, II received {
very glowing telegram from {
scientist describing the success
of the experiment." This prob
ably came via Secretary of Wa
Stimson who was present at th'
conference.
I