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Military government weekly information bulletin
Number 62 (October 1946)
Press and radio comment, pp. 18-31
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Page 18
UL newspapers generally agreed that the experience of W. Averill Harriman in business as well as foreign affairs makes his choice as Secretary of Commerce a shrewd and wise one. His statement that he fully supports President Truman and Secrctary Byrnes in conducting the US foreign policy along lines laid down by the late President Roosevelt is acclaimed as indicating unity within government on foreign affairs. Among the few dissenting voices raised is that of the Chicago Tribune which is of the opinion that "all that the change means is tha t Russia has lost an advocate in the Cabinet and Britain has gained one. The American people are no better off." The New York Herald Tribune said in part: "The appointment amounts to an emphatic reassertion of the Byrnes policy, it brings into the Cabinet a man who knows something at first hand about our biggest foreign problem. It will go at least a good way in the domestic Democratic Party poli- ties to cushion the shock of the Wallace defection. Mr. Harriman is in his own right an official of ability. Through his long ser- vice at the center of industrial mobilization, wvar and diplomacy, he has steadily grown in discernment as well as in experience. Washington Post: "Continuity with New Deal and Mr. Roosevelt. a standing in the business community. a knowledge and abililv in our foreign relations, particularly with Russia and Britain all these conspire to make the appointment a wise one ... by all accou1nts -- and his own statement in London comes as confirmation --he would 'fight for peace' by bettering the world's livelihood and propagating ideas of freedom. Only by so doing can we live up to the responsib- ilities thait destinv has put on our (loorsiep of brought unity on foreign policy to the Cabinet, and named a New Dealer to a vital domestic post." New York Sun: "Here is a man who has been working closely with Secretary Byrnes in Paris; who on the basis of his experience as Ambassador to Moscow as well as to London, sees eye to eye with the Secretary on America's foreign policy; and who has spoken out firmly against appeasement of Moscow and Stalin.... as he said some months ago in discussing our policy towards Russia, he believes the United States must remain strong, physically and spiritually, 'taking a clear position based on principles of the United Nations Charter and the prin- ciples in which American people have pro- found faith.' That is how Secretary Byrnos and most of his fellow Americans feel." Task Facing Congress Commiienting on the need for preparedness the New York Herald Tribune declared in a recent editorial: "The end of hostilities a year ago saw a repetition of a familiar \merican prectice -- the hasty and dis- organized tearing down of a great military machine. The pressure to get men who had served faithfully and well until victory back to civilian life was both natural and pol- itically irresistible. Far less justifiable was the refusal of Congress to face up 1o the need for replacing them. on a sound and durable basis. "Meanwhile. however. the wvorld situat iOU has deteriorated to a point where nearly all Americans recognize the need a maintaining the armed services at a high level, not simply as a sort of thread to hold a paper army together - as is this conntry's usual peacetime habit but as a force in being in time of tension."' Is
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