Evening star., 1953-11-22
Hoover Testimony Seen
Devastating Truman
Writer Says Former President
Was Inaccurate About White
By Fronk R. Kent

Writer Says Former President
Was Inaccurate About White
By Fronk R. Kent
For the past two weeks the press
and air have been SO full of the So
called white case" that there has
been little room for anything else.
Started by the charges of Attorney
General Brownell that the late Harry
Dexter White had been promoted and
protected by "the very people who ap-
pointed him." after the FBI had sub
mitted two reports concerning his
communistic Affiliations, the climax
came few days ago with the speeches
of Mr.. Truman, Mr.. Brownell and j.
Edgar Hoover. head of the Federal
Bureau of InveStigation-the last two
under oath before the Senate Investi-
eating Committee, headed by Senator
Jenner.
Of the three, far the most devastat-
ing was that of Mr.. Hoover. Aside
from the typical description of his own
misstatement of fact as an error"
and his denunciation of Mr.. Brownell's
misstatement as "a lie," the Truman
defense was curious one. He admitted
Chaving first denied it, having received.
through his aide, Maj. Gen. Harry
Vaughan, two reports from the FBI
laying before him the incontrovertible
facts concerning Mr.. Whites espionage
activity. He asserted that then on the
advice of the late Fred Vinson, then
Secretary of the Treasury, and of At
torney General (now Justice) Clark,
he decided to let Mr.. White, though
charged as spy by the FBI, take his
post on the International Monetary
Fund in order that the FBI might
better continue it's surveillance and in
vestigation. His clear implication was
that. the FBI approved this course.
And this was exactly the part Of
the Truman defense that Mr.. Hoover
destroyed. First, he vehemently as
serted that neither he nor the FBI
ever made any agreement with Mr..
Truman or any one else to lay any
such trap for Mr.. White. nor was
any such suggestion ever made to him.
On the contrary, he asserted that when
he talked with Mr.. Vinson and Mr..
Clark he found Mr.. Vinson opposed to
continuing Mr.. White in the Govern
ment service and he understood Mr..
Clark to have the same feeling. All
he did he said was to tell them he
thought it unwise to continue Mr.
White in any Office because he was
unfit.
In so many words. Mr.. Hoover as
serted that neither he, Mr.. Vinson
nor Mr.. Clark wanted to keep Mr..
White in the Government service, but
that the decision to do so came from
a higher authority" This could only
mean Mr.. Truman. Considering this,
statement that the transfer of Mr..
White from an Assistant Secretary OF
the Treasury to a dictatorship Of the
International Monetary Fund made it
more difficult to keep him under sur
veillance than before, because he was
then in a position where the FBI
could not properly intrude-when you
consider that, Mr.. Truman's excuse
for continuing him in the Government
service becomes ludicrous.
Even if one stops trying to recon-
cile with the facts of his resignation,
Mr.. Truman's utterly inaccurate state
ment that he fired" Mr.. White when
he discovered he was "a wrong one"
and, even if one disregards altogether
the cordial and laudatory letter with
which Mr.. Truman many months later
reluctantly" accepted that resigna-
ton, it must be admitted that Mr..
Hoovers testimony shattered the whole
Truman defense. No charge that Mr..
Hoover is playing politics" can be
made. No charge that he likes Mr..
Brownell or dislikes Mr.. Truman will
stand up for a minute. If there is
Government official anywhere in whom
the American people have confidence,
it is John Edgar Hoover He and his
FBI are the chief instruments we have
against the Communist conspiracy"
(Mr. Hoover's own words to infiltrate
our Government.
And it is not possible to find a mo-
tive for him to lie under oath. There,
of course, will be efforts upon the part
of the Eisenhower publicists and
politicians to disparage him. There will
be replies from Mr.. Truman, from
Chairman Mitchell and even from the
glib Adlai Stevenson, who, on Tues
day night, let loose with a silly blast
Nll DlOWIlcll anu d DOOSJ IOT
Mr.. Truman. But there will not be
much more fight in them. The Hoover
BroWnell statements have taken the
wind out of them-busted the balloon.
The most charitable thing that can
be said about Mr.. Truman now Is that
he did not have sense enough to grasp
the meaning of the facts when they
were presented to him. No one thinks
he is himself disloyal But what one
seems compelled to think is that
in 1856 he did not believe in a
Communist conspiracy" even when
presented by the FBI; that he thought
ali this stuff about traitors was a "red
herring" and he didn't want to be
bothered with it. Certainly, he knows
better now, and 1t would be more
becoming If he acknowledged his inept
short -sightedness instead of beating his
breast and calling everybody a liar