The Albatrosses

While Republican criticism of U.S. foreign policy broke over the head of Secretary of State Dean Acheson, in crushing waves, the one Administration official who seemed completely unconcerned was Defense Secretary Louis Johnson. He even appeared to enjoy the show. During a closed congressional hearing not long ago, Johnson had stared pointedly at a waiting State Department witness and cracked: "Is everyone here cleared for security?" But last week big, brash Louis Johnson was trying hard to answer some pointed questions himself.

The questions came from all quarters. Meeting in Chicago, the Veterans of Foreign Wars passed a resolution criticizing the State Department for its blunders, quickly passed another which took dead aim on Johnson's Department of Defense. One Republican advance man, returning from a tour through the Middle West, reported: "Acheson is catching most of the hell here in Washington, but don't think Johnson isn't getting it out in the states. He's just as hot as Acheson and either is enough to sink a Democrat right now."

Double Trouble. Congressional critics were quick to catch the change of temper; most Democrats regarded both Secretaries as albatrosses around the President's neck. Last week, for the first time since the Korean war, Johnson and Acheson marched up Capitol Hill together to argue for the $4 billion foreign-arms program. They would get the money, all right. But for more than three hours, behind closed doors, committeemen blistered the Administration's failure to prepare for Korea. This time Acheson was not the only one to draw the committee's anger. Johnson, who had long done his best to undercut Acheson in private, though he publicly denied it, was beginning to catch his share.

All the angry questions were summed up into one by Congressman Anthony F. Tauriello, a freshman Democrat from Buffalo: Why were the armed forces unprepared for war despite Louis Johnson's assurances to the contrary? Johnson, said Tauriello, had "lost the confidence of the American people" and should resign.

Johnson's answer was hardly calculated to still the clamor. The facts were, said Johnson, that the U.S. armed strength had been greatly increased in the past two years, that his defense economies had never cut into U.S. fighting forces.

As evidence, he produced an approving comment from Georgia's crusty, shrewd Carl Vinson, perennial watchdog of the armed services. Johnson quoted from a five-month-old Vinson speech: "There can be no doubt that Secretary Johnson deserves the commendation of the entire nation for having carried out so successfully the drive to squeeze fat out of public expenditures."

Said Johnson: "I realize that many of these attacks upon me, like many of the attacks upon the Secretary of State, are primarily political . . . with an eye to the November elections. This is all part & parcel of the democratic process and I would not suggest that it should be otherwise--but I think that it is important to recognize it for what it is."

Careful Editing. Not only politics were against Louis Johnson; so were the facts. The plain evidence of mothballed ships, deactivated air squadrons and stripped-down divisions rebutted his talk of economies that did not cripple. Even harder to overlook were the sentences that Johnson had edited out of Carl Vinson's remarks. Example: "A new thought is being germinated in Washington these days. It is that by reducing the armed forces we are, by some magical process . . . becoming militarily more effective . . . I will have to leave it to others to sell the idea that we can rise by falling, that we can advance by retreating, that we can achieve strength through weakness."

Louis Johnson suggested that Democrat Tauriello take his complaint to the President next time. At his weekly press conference, Harry Truman said he didn't feel at all embarrassed by Louis Johnson. The President was always an optimist, and notably loyal to subordinates under attack. He was also pretty good at concealing embarrassment.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.