Evening star., 1953-01-18
First Suspected Soviet in 1915,
Truman Reveals in Interview

truman cOnClnueQ, walked
around the table and told Stain
that the United States had just
created a weapon OF tremen-
dous destructive power with per-
haps 10 or 20 thousand times the
impact of any known explosive.
Stain answered in an Off
hand manner. well, that's very
nice. what are you going to do
with it?" Mr.. Truman answered,
I'm going to use it to end the
war" The Russian leader
thought that was a pretty good
idea. President Truman told me,
II am convinced that Stain did
not know what I was talking
about and did not appear too
interested in the outcome of the
experiment."
Questioned on Traitors.
I asked the President if he felt
that any one inside the Govern
ment who has subsequently been
exposed as a traitor had any
influence on foreign policy in
the days following the war. Mr..
Truman quickly snapped. None
whatsoever" He pointed out that
he, the President, determined
policy and that members of the
Government were used as sources
OF information. "Such people
did not formulate policy, they
carried it out"
who then did have influence
on foreign policy following the
War?" I asked.
The President listed Gen. Eli
senhower, Gen. Marshall, Ed
Pauley, Jim Forrestal, Secretary
Stimson and Admiral Leahy. AS
an afterthought Mr.. Truman
added, "You might call that
group the Security Council of
that day."
The Security Council is the
top policy making body in the
administration dealing with the
defense and safety of the Ma
ton. It was created in 1947.
Tells Story of Conference.
With hearty chuckle the
President told this story of the
Potsdam Conference: "As the
chairman of the conference and
the only head of state present
gave the first formal dinner
for the other principals. On the
morning of the affair a large de-
tail of Russian secret police ar
rived at my quarters at Babels-
berg. They deployed around the
house and insisted on putting
one Russian secret policeman in
every room in my villa.
"The White House detail of
the United States Secret Service,
assigned to guard me. didn't like
this one bit, but the Russians
stayed throughout the day and
evening until Stain left after
the dinner.
Several nights later Stain in
vited me over to his place for
dinner. Without my knowledge
George Drescher, head of the
United States Secret Service at
Potsdam. decided he would take
corresponding steps to protect
the President and at the same
time impress the Russians. He
got from the Army two squad
rons of United States cavalry
men and posted them around
Stalin's quarters, and further
more put cavalryman in every
room in Stalin's villa.
when I arrived there was q
double guard of honor drawn UP
in front of the Russian pre-
mier's villa. Half were crack
Russian troops, half United
States cavalry. I thought this
was a pretty nice gesture by
Stain. I didn't find out for
some time that it was Drescher's
idea and not Stalin's."
ia p44O OUSAdAA
ence on the way home to the
United States the President said
he and his party were pretty
happy about the results of the
meeting. 1--WE thought we had
accomplished just about every
thing we had set out to do, but
it was only a short while later
that We learned we had not
accomplished anything. We
learned the Russians simply
made agreements and treaties,
which if it suited their purpose
they kept, if it did not they
had no compunction about
breaking"
This concluded the Potsdam
phase of the interview with Mr..
Truman and I turned the sub
ject to politics.