The Charlotte News
Wednesday, April 11, 1951
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: The front page
reports that the President had fired
Russell Brines reports from Tokyo that General MacArthur was said by his staff to have taken the news calmly and issued no comment. He had received the word during a private luncheon at his home. He had been out of the U.S. since 1937 when he retired from the Army for four years to assume the role of field marshal of the Philippines, before returning to active duty in 1941 for the duration of the war in the Pacific, and then after the war, becoming commander of the Japanese occupation forces, named supreme commander of the U.N. forces in Korea the prior July.
Congressional Republicans, angered by the decision of the President, threatened possible impeachment proceedings, and obtained the General's agreement to address a joint session of Congress about three weeks hence. The invitation was introduced as a resolution by House GOP Leader Joe Martin and by Senator Kenneth Wherry in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Ernest McFarland objected. In relating of his telephone call to the General to obtain his consent to the address, Congressman Martin called the General "Senator MacArthur", prompting Democratic laughter.
Many of the troops in Korea did not hear the news of the shift in command even by late in the day.
The removal of General MacArthur was expected to clear the way for political moves toward peace in Korea and provide fresh consideration of a 14-nation peace proposal prepared at the U.N. and originated by the U.S., inviting the Chinese to engage in a ceasefire and agree to settlement of outstanding issues by negotiation.
A bulletin indicates that British Foreign Secretary Herbert Morrison said that Britain was now ready to negotiate a ceasefire in Korea but that the other side was so far showing no desire to reciprocate.
In Charlotte, a street sample of opinion showed 13 persons favoring the President's action in firing General MacArthur, five opposed and six without opinion. The report provides comments by those polled.
In Korea, the U.N. drive continued as allied air and artillery barrages wiped out the Chinese base at Chorwon on the western front. On the central front, American troops drove along the southern shores of the Hwachon reservoir but censorship obscured their progress. On the east coast, there was no report of ground action but allied ships hit rail lines and roads.
Eighteen new Chinese Communist divisions had been identified in Korea, bringing the total enemy strength to 695,000 troops.
The White House said that that the President regarded it as "outrageous" that Senator Charles Tobey of New Hampshire had recorded telephone conversations with the President. Senator Tobey told Senate investigators, according to Congressional sources, that the two recorded conversations dealt with the RFC investigation and that the President had said that he had "the goods" on many members of Congress for lending influence in acquiring RFC loans.
In Dundee, Scotland, the Stone of
Scone
In the ninth installment of Dale
Carnegie's How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, not on the
page, the author tells of adversity sometimes being a blessing and cites
examples
On the editorial page, "The MacArthur Dismissal" comments on the firing of General MacArthur by the President and finds it to have been appropriate though regretful, given the General's record during World War II and his role in rebuilding Japan. The President had little choice in the matter if he was to preserve civilian control of the military, restore Presidential prestige, and prevent military dictatorship. No soldier, it concludes, could be allowed to dictate political and diplomatic policies in a democracy.
"Draft Deferments" comments on the experimental draft deferment program for those students academically eligible by attending college and being in a certain standing in the class or passing an aptitude test with a score of 70. UNC president Gordon Gray, former Secretary of the Army, had decried the program for promoting an "intellectual aristocracy", while Davidson College president Dr. John R. Cunningham thought it would enable colleges to continue to turn out leaders in the society.
The piece thinks it would be wiser to have the college students inducted and then allowed, on the basis of their abilities, to pursue their higher education under the direction of the armed forces.
We were not aware that being in the top half of the freshman class, or top two-thirds of the sophomore class, or top three quarters of the junior class, the requirements for qualification under the deferment program, constituted an "intellectual aristocracy". That will come as news to many of the aristocrats who spent their time sleeping it off in the hazy mornings of winter after an inordinate amount of time behind bars the nights before rather than in class or cracking books in preparation therefor, yet maintained somehow their gentleman C's.
"Slow Business in Council Race" tells of there being fourteen candidates in the primary race for seven spots on the City Council. If no one else entered the race, the general election would have the same fourteen candidates, as two were allowed by law per seat. It urges more people to run.
"People Keep on Dying" finds that the "death wish" appeared manifested in the traffic accident rates in the country, with 35,500 fatalities recorded the prior year, the highest rate since 1941 when 40,000 had been killed. It cautions people to avoid the kind of conduct which usually led to accidents, listing those causes, concludes that while drivers were aware of these safety hazards, people continued to die on the highways.
A piece from the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, titled "Petticoat Redivivus", comments on the resurgence of the petticoat, finds it amazing given that it had all but disappeared in 1908 when short skirts first appeared.
Drew Pearson reviews the problems between President Truman and General MacArthur, recapitulating some of the same ground covered the previous day in the editorial by Wallace Carroll of the Winston-Salem Journal. He adds that in December, 1949 the General had told Republican Senators visiting Tokyo that arms and troops ought be sent to Formosa. In the spring of 1950, he had taken an unauthorized trip to Formosa, discussing the possibility of building up Formosa as a base, in complete contradiction to Government policy. After the Korean war began, he had sent a letter to the VFW advocating use of Formosa as a base, for which he was reprimanded by the President.
Averell Harriman had been sent as a special representative of the President to obtain the General's promise that he would not make further policy statements without first clearing them in Washington, and the General agreed. The President then went to Wake Island the prior October, where the General ruffled his feathers by keeping him waiting at the airport for the General's arrival and then failed to salute the President. The General also brought no experts with him when the President had brought along Joint Chiefs chairman General Omar Bradley and a group of experts on Far Eastern problems, resulting in abbreviation of the meeting. Notwithstanding these problems, the President was charmed by the General and left the meeting singing his praises.
Finally, the General's November offensive into North Korea to the Yalu River, though authorized by the President, had been disfavored by the State Department after receipt of warnings from the French, British, and Indian governments that the Chinese were about to attack, as they did, pushing the allies back and forcing evacuation from Hungnam.
On another occasion, when the State Department proposed that the General make a public statement that the big power dams in North Korea supplying power to Manchuria would not be touched, to provide assurances to the Chinese so that they would not attack, the General had sent a succinct telegram saying, "Do not concur."
Marquis Childs discusses the testimony before two Congressional committees by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, that there was a troubling gap in America's security system, without any central responsibility for protecting the industrial plants and laboratories working on secret defense projects, creating an invitation to sabotage and espionage.
The Munitions Board was responsible for plant protection but had only prepared, according to the FBI director, a pamphlet on security.
The gap was also indicated in a report by the joint Committee on Atomic Energy, which focused on the five chief atomic betrayers, Klaus Fuchs in Britain, Bruno Pontecorvo, Allan Nunn May, Harry Gold, and David Greenglass, brother of Ethel Rosenberg, recently convicted and sentenced to death along with her husband Julius for conveying atomic secrets to the Russians.
An encouraging sign was that the FBI had reported no successful act of atomic espionage against the U.S. since mid-1946, especially so since the FBI had not been placed in charge of security until 1947, previously handled by the Manhattan Project.
In Britain, Dr. Fuchs had worked on top atomic secrets until his arrest in 1949 for delivering secrets to the Russians. Mr. Pontecorvo, who had worked with Dr. Fuchs, had fled behind the iron curtain through Finland the prior September to escape culpability.
None of these spies ever openly sympathized with Communism or Russia, had joined no fellow-traveling organizations, and had said nothing about politics. He concludes therefore that the Communist conspiracy was analogous to an iceberg with only a small portion visible, the least harmful part, comprised of screwballs and misguided idealists.
Stewart Alsop suggests that it was conceivable that General MacArthur would be recalled from Korea even before his editorial was printed, as the President was furious over his insubordination. The President's advisers were convinced that the General had consciously intended his recent statements to undercut the President, who had planned to make a statement on Korean war aims. The pressure was also heavy for the President to assert his authority over the General.
The fact that the General had suggested to House GOP Leader Joe Martin that he supported the proposal of having Chinese Nationalist guerrillas attack the Communists on the mainland and that the Communist stand was in Asia, not in Europe, had undercut Administration policy and raised in sharp relief the issue of whether America, in alliance with the Nationalists, should fight a war against Communist China. General MacArthur appeared to want to do that while the Administration was adamantly opposed to it as leading to disaster. The British and other Western European allies believed likewise that it would lead to world war three.
Yet, General MacArthur's position was simple to understand and favored winning the war, whereas the President's policy sounded overly wishful, placing its hope on the smashing of the impending spring offensive as a means to bring the enemy to the peace table.
But, the Chinese and Russians had paid heavily for the venture in Korea and so might be pressed to come to terms. There appeared in store a long test of staying power. But General MacArthur was not suited by temperament to command of a local war with limited objectives and of indefinite duration.
He was right, however, posits Mr. Alsop, in saying that the country could not accept stalemate in Korea forever. There had to be a showdown eventually.
A letter writer asks questions about the war in Korea, finds most people not wanting to fight in it.
A letter from the Marine News in New York comments on the editorial of March 21, "Record of a Reform Movement", anent the status of the recommendations of the Hoover Commission and the editorial's comment that the Army Corps of Engineers and its friends were fighting the plan to consolidate its functions under the Interior Department to allow the pork barrel harbor, rivers and dams projects to come under impartial review. The writer assures that no other Federal expenditure was subjected to closer scrutiny regarding its worth and bristles at labeling the projects "pork barrel", suggesting it impugned the integrity of the Corps of Engineers and members of Congress.
A letter from a member of the Charlotte Junior League thanks the newspaper for its support of the Follies, which was designed to raise money for the Children's Nature Museum.
A letter from the Second Street Branch YMCA tells of Charlotte, including both the black and white communities, joining together to build the black YMCA, set to open April 15, praises the cooperative effort.
Framed Edition
Links-Date — Links-Subj.