The Charlotte News

Friday, April 13, 1951

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: The front page reports, via Olen Clements, that the withdrawal of the Chinese forces in North Korea on Friday suggested, in the wake of the largest jet battle ever fought, that they might be preparing the way for air strikes on the U.N. forces. In making the assessment, Far East Air Forces commander Lt. General George Stratemeyer noted that allied airmen were forbidden from striking in China and had to await enemy air attack beyond the borders of Manchuria, over Korea proper.

General MacArthur was invited to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee as part of its inquiry into the policies which led to his firing by the President with the concurrence of the Joint Chiefs. Chairman of the Committee, Senator Richard Russell, said the attempt was to get all of the facts regarding the military situation in the Far East and was not to be construed as an investigation. No date was set for the General's testimony.

Congressman Joe Martin said that the General would make a public statement in New York City unless invited by Congress to address them first by the following Wednesday or Thursday, as he expected to fly from Tokyo on Monday back to the U.S.

Secretary of Defense Marshall told the Senate Armed Services subcommittee that he opposed a plan to double the size of the Marine Corps. Senators Paul Douglas, Walter George and Irving Ives urged that the objections by the brass be ignored by Congress.

The House defeated an amendment to the universal military training bill which would have prevented assignment of American troops to any theater of war unless the commander was given the right to bomb the enemy supply sources, a nod to General MacArthur's expressed desire, before being relieved, to bomb Chinese bases and coastal defenses.

The State Department rejected a proposal by Britain that Communist China be admitted to the preparations for a Japanese peace treaty and reaffirmed that the U.S. was committed to preservation of the neutral status of Formosa during the Korean war.

The Government announced that 9,600 tons of surplus wheat had been sent by the U.S. to India to relieve threatened starvation there. Another 10,000 tons of wheat had also arrived in India from Argentina.

India stripped the Maharajah of Baroda, one of the ten richest men in the world, of all of his royal titles and more than half a million dollars from his annual revenue, naming his son as his successor. Prime Minister Nehru would make a statement to the Parliament the next day to explain the Government's action.

The Senate was set to vote on the President's controversial proposal to replace the five-man RFC board of directors with a single administrator.

HUAC called screenwriter Paul Jarrico for questioning anent an alleged attempt to prevent a witness from informing on fellow Communists in Hollywood, as charged the previous day by screenwriter Richard Collins, saying that Mr. Jarrico had urged him not to become a "stool pigeon". Mr. Collins had identified 25 film personalities as members of the Communist Party at one time or another during his own time with the party.

In Newburyport, Mass., five gunmen wearing red bandanas over their faces took $35,000 in payroll from the Towle sterling silver plant, shooting and critically wounding a policeman in the ensuing gun battle.

In New York, a Navy plane on a training flight crashed near the Brooklyn Bridge and a deflated life jacket was found floating nearby, but there was no sign of the pilot.

In Raleigh, the General Assembly passed the urban redevelopment enabling act, authorizing cities over 25,000 in population to clear slums and redevelop the property.

The Legislature declined action on two female appointees to the State Board of Education, appointed by Governor Kerr Scott. The State Attorney General said that the failure to take action on the appointments meant that the two appointees would remain on the Board for the ensuing two years until the next session of the Legislature.

In London, a music teacher announced development of a device which could mute pianos, trumpets and violins except to listeners wearing headphones.

How does that work, Mr. Jones?

On the editorial page, "Issues Are at Stake—Not Men" tells of General MacArthur being nearly universally admired in the country and so the public assumed his policy was a good one, while the President was nearly universally regarded as a man of average abilities and so his policies were believed by many to be bad. But it was not that simple as the policies were created by many in the Administration, including Secretaries Marshall, and Acheson, General Eisenhower and Joint Chiefs chairman General Omar Bradley plus the other Joint Chiefs, whose collective experience and wisdom exceeded that of General MacArthur, politically, diplomatically and militarily.

General MacArthur had been out of the country for 15 years, in the Far East, and could not appreciate the global picture.

The hope of the Administration, as the President had said repeatedly in his address explaining his decision to fire the General, was to prevent, not start, world war three. If Russia started it, then the military effort would be directed against Russia, not China.

Those issues could be forgotten when people dwelt too much on personalities rather than substantive matters.

The piece concludes that it would oppose the President's renomination in 1952 even more strongly than it had opposed him in 1948. Yet, the defense policies were shaped by many in the Administration and were quite separate therefore from objection to the personality of the President.

"Mr. Truman's Share of the Blame" clarifies its earlier editorials during the week on the MacArthur-Truman matter and finds that the President had to shoulder some of the blame for the controversy over his firing the General, because had he demonstrated greater leadership, the problem likely would not have arisen. FDR also had trouble with General MacArthur, who wanted precedence given the Pacific war over that in Europe, but the force of Winston Churchill's and FDR's personalities overrode the General's desires.

It reiterates that the Administration policy of containment was correct but that it needed a capable leader and had none.

It concludes, however, that the tone of the President's address explaining his decision on the firing was appropriate and gave hope that the President might curtail some of his off-the-cuff and less Presidential utterances.

"A Wrong Remains Unrighted" praises the State Senate committee which killed the bill to send a constitutional amendment before the people to prevent any county from having more than one State Senator, hopes that during the next two years, the leaders of public opinion could muster support for repportionment of State Senate districts to make them roughly equal in population, as required by the State Constitution upon every decennial census, consistent with democracy.

A piece from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, titled "Fishing: How Crazy?" finds that if more people went fishing, the world would probably not be any the less crazy but would seem so to those who fished. It explains why.

We don't fish and so you will have to read it for yourself.

Drew Pearson tells of the President having planned to fire General MacArthur on Friday before being tipped Tuesday by Secretary of the Army Frank Pace, who had reprimanded the General in Tokyo for his recent public statements on policy, telling the President that the General planned to issue his own public statement, prompting the President to accelerate the firing and announce it at 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday.

The decision on removal was unanimous on Tuesday afternoon among the Joint Chiefs, with chairman General Omar Bradley being the angriest at General MacArthur for sounding off on China and undercutting the defense policy toward Europe. Only Defense Secretary Marshall, who had known General MacArthur a long time, was reluctant.

Replying to White House fears that the Chinese might attack after the removal of General MacArthur, General Matthew Ridgway, new U.N. commander in Korea, said to the Pentagon that no matter what happened, his troops could hold out for 60 days.

The President appeared more sad and disheartened at the decision than exhibiting bravado. He had even wept a little when former Congressman Maury Maverick called him to congratulate him on the move. He said that he had to follow the Constitution and that he had tried hard to get along with General MacArthur. The closest he had come to bravado was the prior week, after the letter of General MacArthur to GOP House Leader Joe Martin, when he told his Cabinet that it was time to "show the MacArthurs, the Time-Life people and the Scripps-Howard newspapers who is running American foreign policy."

The Associated Press collects excerpts of editorial opinions from various newspapers around the country regarding the President's firing of General MacArthur.

The Chicago Tribune and Washington Times-Herald, both conservative newspapers with isolationist bents, demand impeachment of the President and removal from office because the firing showed him unfit "morally and mentally" to hold the office. They conclude that the country had never been in greater danger, being "led by a fool who is surrounded by knaves."

The New York Times finds the President's action justified, as policy had to be made in Washington, not Tokyo, and the President had the authority under the Constitution to direct policy as commander-in-chief and the military had the duty to follow it.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch finds talk of impeachment absurd and that the President had no alternative after General MacArthur ignored at least two Presidential directives.

The New York Daily Mirror finds the dismissal to be an effort to please the "cupidity" of Britain, the "ignorance" of Secretary of State Acheson and the "jealousy" of Defense Secretary Marshall, wonders whether a deal was in the making for appeasement in Korea.

The Louisville Courier-Journal asserts that a stronger President would have removed the General earlier.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette supports the President in the move.

The Los Angeles Times finds it a victory for Stalin, Secretary Acheson, and the "mousy little creatures" in the U.N. who wanted a truce.

The New York Herald Tribune says that the General practically forced his own removal.

The Boston Herald finds that the President had no alternative.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune opines that the dismissal would not resolve the problem of Korea but that the solution had to come from Washington.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer finds the General to have overstepped his bounds and the President to have exercised his proper authority, albeit while also possibly having exposed the "bankruptcy of his own administration."

The Baltimore (Morning) Sun finds the decision proper and necessary as soldiers had to obey orders.

The Denver Post says that the insubordination of the General could not be ignored and hopes that the President and Secretary Marshall would now give consideration to the people, as they had not theretofore done.

The Detroit Free Press suggests that a bigger man than the President would have found a way to work with the General, a victim of the uncertain policy of Washington.

The Washington Post indicates that the President had finally taken a firm hand in the nation's affairs for the first time in months.

The Dallas Morning News terms the action a military victory for Stalin and Communist China.

The Rochester (N.Y.) Times Union believes that the General should have been called back to explain his position to the people before his removal and that the problem in Washington was indecision over Korea, not what to do about General MacArthur.

The St. Louis Globe Democrat finds the President's action justified given the usurpation of authority over foreign policy by General MacArthur.

The Atlanta Constitution supports the President's action and urges that a government could not become afraid of a military hero and idol.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch finds the President as right on policy as on the matter of the General's insubordination.

A letter writer compliments the newspaper on its editorial of April 10, "Truman and Lincoln—A Parallel", comparing the plight of President Truman with respect to General MacArthur with President Lincoln and his battles with General George McClellan at the outset of the Civil War.

The writer then sarcastically proceeds to find that the President, given his Pendergast background, might someday be called "Honest Harry" and that his whistlestop campaign speeches might be ranked alongside the Gettysburg Address for eloquence. Borrowing from Drew Pearson's occasional "Servants of Brotherhood" awards, he concludes by suggesting a "Shrine of Brotherhood", in honor of the President, to go along with the Lincoln Memorial.

A letter writer from Pittsboro comments on the same editorial, saying that he thinks General MacArthur got what was coming to him for trying to spread the war into China. He says he would withdraw U.S. forces from Korea.

A letter writer from Gastonia finds the poem "God Give Us Men!" by Josiah Gilbert Holland coming to mind in such times of vice and immorality among the men in government.

A letter from the director of the March of Dimes drive in North Carolina, writing from Chapel Hill, tells of the drive being a success, with a little over 1.25 million dollars collected in the state, of which over $70,000 had been contributed in Mecklenburg County. She thanks the newspapers of the state for their help.

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