Monday, March 6, 1944

The Charlotte News

Monday, March 6, 1944

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: In the seventh raid in eight days, the American Eighth Air Force, reports the front page, hit Berlin for the second time, and for the second time in three days after the "'ice-breaker'" raid on Saturday. Targets were not provided by the official communiqués, but the German broadcast indicated that one of the greatest raids yet on Germany had been transpiring since 11:30 a.m., 6:30 a.m. Washington time, extending from Zuider Zee to Heavel Lakes, in the vicinity of Berlin.

In Russia, the First Ukrainian Army, now under the command of Marshal Gregory Zhukov, began a new offensive, appearing to have cut the Odessa-Lwow Railroad. It was the first command of Marshal Zhukov since the Battle of Moscow. The aim of the drive was to isolate the remaining German army standing east of the lower Dneiper River in Southern Russia.

More reinforcements were being sent to shore up defenses at Momote airfield on newly captured Los Negros Island in the Admiralties. Another bombing raid hit Ponape in the Eastern Caroline Islands from bases on Kwajalein and Eniwetok in the Marshalls.

Word of the intended symbolic ten-minute strike of workers in Naples had apparently spread to Nazi-occupied Northern Italy where, in Turin and Milan, three to six million workers were reported to have struck. The Nazis had ordered that they return to work by the following day or suffer the "severest penalties", including deportation to Poland--which meant certain death.

Seven hundred and eleven North and South Americans were on their way home aboard the Gripsholm, sailing from Sweden, as exchange prisoners, having been interned for a long period by the Germans. Some were men being expatriated from their homes in France, torn from their established families, having settled there after World War I, having been troops in the American Expeditionary Force. They were sorely displeased with their inclusion in the exchange at the insistence of the Nazis.

Merrill’s Marauders, the only American unit fighting in Burma, under the command of Brig. General Frank Merrill, had captured Walawburn and Maingkwan in northern Burma after a combined Chinese-American pincer operation had surrounded 2,000 Japanese defenders.

German casualties in Italy now numbered 24,000, a substantial percentage of whom had been killed in action. The heavy fighting around Cassino and on the Anzio beachhead had forced the retention of five German divisions in Italy, including some of the best German troops, those of the Hermann Goering Division, among others. That, plus the necessity of maintaining German forces in Yugoslavia to fight Tito's Partisans, in Southern France to defend against a potential invasion via the Mediterranean, and the troops assigned to maintain order in Northern Italy, had significantly reduced the number of Germans left to defend the Northern Coast of France, where Allied invasion was expected in the spring.

General Eisenhower issued a directive to the soldiers in England that they follow a strict code of public decency, which included no excessive drinking, no drunkenness, no loud and profane language, (soft profane language not being mentioned), no discourtesy to civilians, (discourtesy to military superiors also not being mentioned), and no slovenly appearance.

In short, one should be spit-polished and pleasing to the eye, should Congresswoman Clare Boothe Luce, for instance, pay the General a visit, replete with a broach on her left breast forming the word "Ike".

No implications intended, General.

We like Ike, just not…well.

A piece indicates that Canadian Army Major Paul Triquet had become the second Canadian of the war and the first of the Italian Campaign to receive the Victoria Cross for bravery in action by leading nine men in an assault lasting five days against heavy enemy fire on a heavily defended German position in the village of Casa Berardi, sine qua non for Allied victory on the Eighth Army Ortona-Orsogna front, along the Adriatic. The taking of the position on the sixth day of fighting enabled the breakthrough which led to the taking of Ortona, as reported December 29. The incident was chronicled in the Canadian Army Gazette and in the companion London Gazette of March 3.

Simon Harcourt-Smith, writing an editorial in the London Daily Mail, stated that a Japanese broadcast from Batavia had suggested that a group in Commons and a financial group in London--presumably a resurrection of the old Cliveden Set, though not so indicated by Mr. Harcourt-Smith--were giving serious air to discussions of a separate compromise peace with Japan. He cautioned against the notion on the basis that Japan would seek to conquer the West, if not during that generation, then in subsequent generations, that they were no longer convivial with Germany as an ally, as earlier in the war. Now, he said, only an occasional shipment to Lorient or Hamburg of rubber from the East Indies reaffirmed the cautious alliance. He further warned that Japan’s ultimate goal was world domination, that if the Axis had achieved victory, it would only have been a matter of time before Germany and Japan would have engaged in the final battle to determine the victor.

Had it been so, of course, Germany would have become the victor, with the imminent prospect of the development of an atomic bomb, already possessed of the means of its delivery, at least at relatively short range and without very much accuracy. But the luxury of additional time would have governed the ability to perfect it, much as it did for the victorious Allies.

William Worden, in the "Reporter's Notebook" column, indicates that Ennylabegan Island, within Kwajalein Atoll, was, by comparison to the other five islands of the atoll, a tropical paradise, wrecked by the fighting and spread thick with the dead bodies of the Japanese defenders. Ennylabegan was never defended by the Japanese, save a contingent of 25, and so was spared the pervasive destruction and stench of death.

Jonathan Daniels, recommended for a contempt citation by an agriculture subcommittee chaired by Senator Cotton Ed Smith of South Carolina, had, after discussing the matter with the President, agreed to appear before the subcommittee and testify after all re his alleged attempts to obtain the resignation of the head of the Rural Electrification Administration, Harry Slattery. Mr. Daniels, executive assistant to the President, had contended that to respond to Mr. Slattery's contentions that Mr. Daniels had thrice sought to obtain his resignation would violate the concept of Executive privilege, that is the confidential relationship between the President and his advisors.

This thorny issue, of course, raised its head in a major way during the investigation of the June 17, 1972 break-in of the Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate, in contest of some of the subpoenas issued by Federal Judge John Sirica in Federal District Court relating to the various criminal charges of the principals and the subpoenas issued by the Senate Select Committee on Watergate, chaired by Senator Sam J. Ervin of North Carolina. Notably, President Nixon resisted, until ordered by the Supreme Court, turning over subpoenaed tape recordings, after the presence of the Oval Office recording system was revealed by Alexander Butterfield (and his Blues Band) in July, 1973 during the Senate Select Committee hearings. The case severely limited the scope of Executive privilege to that matter which might actually compromise national security by its public revelation. With the appropriate redactions of such matter, the Court ordered the tapes be disclosed.

President Nixon, had he been more sensitive through his career to civil rights and not built his career from trampling the civil rights of others, might have contended with a good deal of credulity that Senator Ervin was simply out to "get Nixon"--we use the phraseology pointedly as Nixon, himself, incessantly referred to himself in the third person--for his liberal stands on civil rights. But, Mr. Nixon had, early on in his career, foreclosed the possibility, unless, that is, he wanted to wind up being Johnny Carson's butt. Of course, he was anyway.

--So, what the hell. Go for broke, Mr. President. Tell them you, you know, love Sammy Davis, Jr. He’s black, right?

--Yeah, yeah, yeah-- Why didn't I think of that? Oh, we can get Ervin good. Yeah. We'll shut this problem down. Sure. I know where we can get a million dollars. And some Teamsters, you know, thugs to break up these hippies out there in Lafayette Square. Just look at those bums. But, as I was saying, the Bay of Pigs thing. Tell Helms that the Bay of Pigs thing is going to really be a problem now and to get the [expletive deleted] FBI the hell off my back. Yeah. Go do it, Bob. [Expletive deleted] 'em.

--Bay of Pigs? Why, Mr. President? That was 1962. You were running for governor of California against Pat Brown.

--Don't ask questions, Bob. Just [expletive deleted] do as I say. You're not employed here to think. What do you think this is, some kind of [expletive deleted] think tank? I wish I could just say I'm a nigger-lover. But you know, the niggers really give me a problem. All that funny hair and those strange things they say. And those big shoes they wear, long gold chains, floppy suits. Ask Butts, [Agriculture Secretary Earl "Rusty" Butz?], and he and I can discuss that one some. Yeah. The Butts Op. Get to work on it, John.

--Excuse me a moment. Yes, Rosemary. Elvis Presley? What the heck is he doing here. A gun? Well, let him in and maybe he'll do something and we can pin it on him and kill two birds with [one?] stone, tell the kids he was crazy all along with that Hound Dog Negro music he's been singing of late.

The piece anent the mother who was doing alright after giving birth to quadruplets, one of whom had not survived, causes us to point out something which, despite having heard the music of Simon & Garfunkel all these many years, since one nice fall day in 1965--which we could have sworn was in winter, January--when we first heard the strains of "Sounds of Silence", capturing our immediate attention, we did not realize. We assume that Columbia Records wanted to keep it a closely-held secret to avoid the potential for confusion and rumors, and so limited it to England, the land of the mum, and Beatle Ed. In any event, over 45 years on, we now realize as of Sunday, March 6, 2011, in what one might call a Steve Allen moment, that when, in October, 2008, we made note of Mr. Simon's birth date, we owed also his brother Ed a similar cigar. So, now, belatedly, there you are.

Secrecy. How do they do it?

You may think, incidentally, that we slighted Mr. Garfunkel in the note associated with November 5, 1941, his birth date. But, we beg to differ. You can call us Al.

On the editorial page, "Showdown" remarks that the policy now in place, that preservation of American lives was paramount to protection of art, religious, and historical relics and buildings, came too late to save the lost American lives of those men trying to struggle up Mount Cassino to the Benedictine Monastery against salvos of machinegun and artillery fire, the latter spotted down by lookouts in the monastery. But the new policy was an appropriate one for the duration and one which would help to save many lives.

If, opines the piece, Rome must be bombarded to interrupt Nazi rail supplies to the Anzio beachhead and to Cassino, then so be it. If the Nazis were going to use monasteries and churches as refuge, then those edifices became properly targets of war.

"Late News" comments on several snippets of news on or from Eleanor Roosevelt: she was heading to the Caribbean for a good will tour of the soldiers stationed there; she now weighed 153.5 pounds; she continued to register disapproval of the U.S. system of education, finding it operating outside reality; she approved Bernard Baruch's plan for demobilization and a return to civilian economy, though wondered as to who should administer it; and she expressed no dismay at a recent letter from a railroad conductor in Memphis who sent along a newspaper clipping reporting of a clash between black troops of the Army and peace officers in a town in Tennessee.

"A Prophet" reports on a recent speech by Vichy Prime Minister Pierre Laval that German might would ultimately prevent Allied victory in the war, even if it had proven not insuperable. He also warned the people that the Germans would not tolerate disorder in the country, that if anyone believed he could "say what he thinks, and act as he likes", he was mistaken.

M. Laval's days as Prime Minister were numbered. He would be succeeded by Charles De Gaulle after the Allied liberation on August 20. He would be executed for treason after trial in France in October, 1945.

We note that, more and more, there are people in the United States who assume the position of M. Laval, in direct proportion to their kingly or queenly assumption of authority over others, and inversely proportional to their understanding of the Constitution of the United States. It is inexcusable in a citizen; it is doubly inexcusable in a lawyer, and triply so, in the case of a judge, the latter charged with the responsibility to instruct one and only one thing, that the Constitution, and the laws properly promulgated in accordance with it, be applied appropriately and equally, and without doing violence to the rights of any single person before the bar of justice. The Constitution is not that difficult to understand for someone equipped with ordinary reading skills and intelligence, for it was so designed by the Founders. But, as we have said before, should a lawyer or judge not understand it, it is either the result of mental chicanery or mental impairment since law school, and, in either event, they should not continue as lawyers or judges.

"Revival" speaks of the America First Party convention, set to nominate either Robert Rice Reynolds or Gerald L. K. Smith as their presidential candidate. It then reels off the list of names of other Nazis making a comeback, starting with Charles Lindbergh. And, of course, there were William Dudley Pelley and Dizzy Miss Lizzie Dilling, making a killing dressed to the hilt in jackboots and kilt.

Dorothy Thompson examines the armistice terms offered Finland by Russia and considers it masterfully done to place the Balkans on notice that Russia would not exact Draconian terms of surrender. The reason for the reasonably lenient terms, however, was that Finland had proved a strategic cipher in the war, that its original admission of German troops in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 to defend it from Russia had been the precipitate cause of the two wars with Russia; but, in the end, the country had proved too remote for any strategic significance in the war between Germany and Russia. Poland proved the natural battleground for an offensive by Germany against Russia and so would be the primary object of Russia's post-war demands for a buffer zone.

She finds it particularly symbolic that aging former Finnish President and Premier Pehr Svinhufud had just died on the very day that Russia had tendered the terms of armistice to Finland. Mr. Svinhufud had initially been content with Russia during the czarist era, but had inaugurated the policy of seeking German military aid after the Communists came to power.

Drew Pearson discusses the rift within Wendell Willkie's campaign staff by the fact of his support for FDR's plan of implementing higher taxes to pay for the war, even adding substantially to the 10.5 billion sought by the President, proposing fully 16 to 17 billion in new taxes. John Hanes, whose father helped to found R.J. Reynolds tobacco company in Winston-Salem, and who had been Undersecretary of the Treasury under FDR, was for lower taxes. But Mr. Willkie's other right-hand man, Russell Davenport, was for higher taxes to pay for the war so as not to impose the burden on the fighting men themselves upon their return. Mr. Pearson looks for Mr. Hanes soon to resign from Mr. Willkie's campaign.

He next turns to the angry denial he had encountered a year earlier when he published facts re the allocation of 68.5 million dollars by Secretary of Commerce Jesse Jones to Alcoa to build an aluminum plant in Quebec, free from U.S. taxes and, if the project were canceled prior to 1946, without necessity of returning the proceeds loaned interest free, the amount being more than necessary to build the plant, thus taking away from the venture any financial risk. Mr. Pearson had also indicated that, while materials to build the plant were given priority by the Government, U.S. power plants went wanting of materials.

Despite the denial at the time by Mr. Jones, the Truman Committee had now issued a report fully corroborating the Pearson claims. Mr. Pearson understandably gloats at his vindication.

Samuel Grafton comments on the two schools of thought with regard to the shape of the post-war United Nations organization--even if that particular nomenclature had disappeared from the prints since the Tehran and Cairo conferences, after being used since early 1942, put into use by President Roosevelt. One school, represented by columnist and author Walter Lippmann, had it that the four major powers, China, Russia, the U.S., and Great Britain, should each be regionally responsible for their corner of the world, and that the four should become the primary policemen of the world. The other view was that which Thomas Dewey had adopted, that the nations of the world should each share in the decisions equally of how the post-war world would be constructed.

Mr. Grafton finds this latter approach full of naivete for its complexity of implementation in practical reality. For each nation, if an issue, desired of a particular result in the favor of that nation, might meet opposition from other nations who were its neighbors, could turn, nevertheless, to more remote countries to support the particular goal.

Was Mr. Grafton not entirely correct? Take, for instance the Cuban Missile Crisis. Russia and the Soviet Bloc of Warsaw Pact nations of the era fully supported the deployment in Cuba of strategic nuclear weapons, capable of striking major United States cities, as a hedge against missiles in Western Europe aimed at the Soviet Union. Without the preeminence of the Security Council of the United Nations, then other nations of the world, more prone to accept Communism, could have prevented the authorization of power to remove the missiles, preventing then legitimacy to any effort, by blockade or invasion or threat of invasion of Cuba, to remove them. The U.S. then would have been in a subordinate position with respect to strategic threat, with missile emplacements capable of accurate launch against numerous U.S. cities, including Washington, or it would have undertaken action not authorized by the U.N. and thus considered by many nations of the world to be rogue.

A news item indicates that Michigan Republican Congressman Albert Engel had complained of the costs associated with running the Pentagon, citing the need to replace 250,000 light bulbs and to pay $75,000 for annual mowing expense--that being, no doubt, for the cutting of the grass growing under the feet of the generals within the building.

He asserted that, unless costs were reduced, within a period of 50 years, or by 1994, the building's original 75 million dollar cost, twice that originally authorized, would balloon to 232.5 million dollars. The Congressman was much too conservative.

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