"This Is Washington"

In guarded rooms in Washington and in the capitals of Europe the telecom machines clattered: "This is Washington ...." "This is London . . ." "Embassy Moscow replying . . ." In the telecom room at the State Department, Under Secretary of State Robert Lovett sat day after day until the early morning hours, instructing, consulting, talking across an ocean and half a continent.

The machines took down his words and the words of his colleagues, scrambled them, transmitted them to machines at the other end which decoded them and flashed the messages on lighted screens.

It was a week when the telecom machines clattered almost incessantly. U.S.Russian relations had never been as taut. A hoped-for settlement of the conflict in Berlin vanished when talks between the military governors reached an impasse. Moscow, extending a conciliatory right hand, had signaled its agents to whip up new trouble.

Caught by surprise when 300,000 Germans held an anti-Communist demonstration in Berlin (see INTERNATIONAL), Russian agents whistled up a Communist rally of 100,000 Germans to answer the challenge. Under these circumstances negotiations were impossible. The real danger was that Russia had started a fire which she might not be able to quench.

It was a moment when the U.S. had no other choice but to hold to its position. Harry Truman was quoted by Labor Leader David Dubinsky as promising, "We will not go out of Berlin." That was about all most U.S. citizens knew about their nation's developing diplomacy. But they were willing to applaud when Arthur Vandenberg warned the world not to misinterpret political differences in the U.S. After a conference with Governor Dewey, Vandenberg declared: "We are serving notice on the world that America is united to protect American rights everywhere."

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