Keep the Guard Up

The big clock in the Detroit city hall tower was bonging high noon when Harry Truman, to the strains of "Hail to the Chief," strode to the rostrum facing crowded Cadillac Square. To Detroit's shirtsleeved thousands, celebrating their city's 250th anniversary, and to the nation, the President spoke a somber warning.

"We do not yet know whether the Communists really desire peace in Korea," he said, "or whether they are simply trying to gain by negotiations what they have not been able to gain by conquest. We intend to find that out . . .

"But whatever happens in Korea, we must not make the mistake of jumping to the conclusion that the Soviet rulers have given up their ideas of world conquest. . . They are putting themselves in the position where they can commit new acts of aggression at any time." Then he passed along a piece of intelligence: Rumania recently cleared a strip of land 30 miles deep along her Yugoslav border. "Bulgaria and Hungary have done the same thing. Military preparations have been going on in those zones along the border."

In the Far East, North Koreans and Chinese alike are bringing up new equipment, and "the Russians themselves have more than 4,000,000 men under arms in Europe and the Far East. There are heavy concentrations . . . across from Japan and across from Alaska . . . Don't let anyone confuse you about this. We cannot let down our guard, no matter what happens in Korea."

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