Dear Diary

Because of the rich intelligence harvest that it reaped from captured Japanese diaries, the U.S. Army in World War II became highly diary-conscious. It vigorously emphasized the traditional order forbidding front-line soldiers and officers to keep diaries. One of the men enforcing this order was granite-chinned Major General Robert W. Grow, who ably led the U.S. 6th Armored Division from Utah Beach to Leipzig.

In July 1950, Grow became U.S. military attache in Moscow. In Moscow, the general kept a diary.

Last week Communist propagandists, in a German book called Auf dem Kriegspfad (On the Road to War) reprinted long excerpts from the general's journal, proved their authenticity with photostats of Grow's handwriting. The general's puerile entries fitted perfectly into the Communist line that the U.S. is "plotting World War III." Samples:

"The Tolstoy Memorial [at Yasnaya Polyana] was closed today, which did not matter much to us, because we hadn't come to look at it anyway ... Large numbers of military vehicles noted. Saw ack-ack equipment."

"Big electric-power station near Shatura ... Good target."

"We must start by hitting below the belt."

"Anything, truth or falsehood ... to undermine the confidence and loyalty of Soviet subjects for their regime."

"War! As soon as possible! Now!"

When the story rocked Washington, the Pentagon ruefully admitted its accuracy. Actually, the Pentagon knew that some excerpts were published in the German Communist Berliner Zeitung on Jan. 3; Grow's recall from Moscow was announced the next day. The Pentagon thought that the diary had been stolen by Soviet agents, photostated and replaced while Grow was staying at the U.S. occupation's Victory Guest House near Frankfurt in mid-1951.

While Grow kept out of sight in Washington, where he has been serving on the Army Personnel Board, indignant Congressmen called for his court-martial. The Voice of America sheepishly told overseas listeners that Grow's opinions "bear no relation to official American foreign policy." Nor did they bear relation to the qualifications of a U.S. military attache.

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