Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1953-03-26
The Political Mil
The Political Mill
Bohlen Is the Right Man
For Very Exocting Job
McCorthy's Antics Suggest
Attack on Dulles Integrity
By Gould Lincoln


Attack on Dulles Integrity
By Gould Lincoln
The confirmation by the Senate Of
the appointment of Charles E. Bohlen
as Ambassador to Russia will place
valuable foreign officer of the United
States in Moscow at a time when there
Is need for one. Beyond that, the
Senate'S action will give assurance to
career men" IN the Government that
they will have square deal-whether
in Republican or Democratic adj
ministration. A rejection of the Bohlen
appointment would not only send a
chill down the spines of men who have
served the country faithfully, but would
be a slap in the face for President
Eisenhower and his Secretary of State,
John Foster Dulles. both of whom
firmly support Mr.. Bohlen.
In addition. the action of the Senate
in support Of the Bohlen appointment
will be solar plexus blow to the idea
that an official of the Government
may be destroyed-by action of the
Senate-on mere innuendo and sour
rilous charges founded on rumor. 1t
turned back all suggestion of a new
kind Of third degree" inquiry to be
imposed on presidential appointees.
Senator McCarthy's suggestion that
Mr.. Bohlen be given an opportunity to
submit to ''lie detector" test In order
to clear himself of all the charges and
rumors that may have been urged
against him was astounding, and it
was quickly frowned upon by Senator
Taft of Ohio, Republican leader of the
Senate, and others.
Attack on Dulles.
Another suggestion of the Wisconsin
Senator was that Secretary of State
Dulles and Scott Mcleod, State De-
partment security officer, be called be-
fore the Senate Foreign Relations Com
mittee and put under oath to testify
how Mr.. Bohlen had been cleared" for
loyalty and security. Certainly the
demand gave all the appearance of an
attack on the integrity of the Secretary
of State himSelf-going far beyond that
on Mr.. Bohlen.
The more respectable criticism Of
Mr.. Bohlens nomination was that he
had served under Presidents Roosevelt
and Truman-eSpecially as an inter-
preter-he speaks Russian f1uently-at
Yalta and Potsdam and elsewhere. The
criticism ran that no man who had any
part in these conferences, particularly
Yalta, should be sent to Moscow as
United States Ambassador. The Re-
publican cry has been that the agree
ments reached at Yalta sold Nationalist
China down the river, not to mention
Poland and other countries now behind
the Iron Curtain. Mr.. Bohlen, who had
no part in policy making, frankly told
'the Senate Foreign Relations Commit
tee that it was not the agreements en-
tered into at Yalta but their violation
by Soviet Russia VIII ch has caused all
the trouble.
States Stand Clearly.
He also made it clear that he gave
his loyalty to Roosevelt and Truman
while they were in Office, and that he
would be loyal to President Eisenhower.
What, in the name of common sense
and integrity, could a career man in the
State Department and the Foreign
Service. or in the armed forces. do
otherwise than be loyal to the Chief
Executive of the United States Govern
ment? The American people in the
presidential election last November
gave very definite answer. They
elected Gen. Eisenhower PRESIDENTIAL
though as an officer of the Army he
had been appointed to high rank and
served under both Roosevelt and Tru-
man.
Mr.. Bohlen entered the Foreign
Service of his country in 1929, during
the administration of Republican Pres
ident Herbert Hoover, within two years
after he became graduate of Harvard.
In the intervening "a years he has
served large part of the time in Rus
STA. as a consular officer and as secre-
tary of embassy. He served, too, in
Prague, Paris, Tokyo and Washington.
He specialized, however, in the Soviet
Union, and his knowledge of the peo-
pie, the government and Communism.
obtained by personal contact, is greater
than that, probably, of any other
American official. His selection to be
Ambassador in Moscow is sound. 1t is
interesting to note, too, that Mr.. Bob
len has been confirmed by the Senate
for appointment to high Office in
the past-after the Yalta Conference
without any voice being raised against
him-once as counselor Of the State De-
partment. All Of which raises a ques-
ton: What's back Of the present at
tack?