WASHINGTON MERRY - GO - ROUND
By DREW PEARSON
WASHINGTON- President Truman really poured it on mud-slinging
Sen. Joe McCarthy in a long-distance phone conference from Key West with congressional
leaders in Washington this week.
"What's wrong with that fellow, anyway?" exploded Truman. "Doesn't
he know that he is doing irreparabel harm to his government by all this loose
talk?"
The President commented that McCarthy's charges that the state department is
"loaded with pro-Communists" already had seriously undermined the
morale, and perhaps the efficiency, of this vital branch of the government.
"Think of the great numbers of loyal personnel in the department who have
given their whole lives to their government," he said, "and think
what McCarthy had done to the spirit of these people. It would not surprise
me if many of them were thinking of resigning. They probably figure they'll
be next on McCarthy's list and they don't want to have their families dragged
through such an ordeal."
McCarthy has played right into the hands of Russian propagandists who are doing
everything to sell their satellites and other western European countries the
idea that the United States is divided against itself, the President declared.
He added that McCarthy had made the job of our foreign diplomats "doubly
difficult," because they are afraid to be seen talking to anybody who might
be accused of pro-Communist leanings in France, Italy and other countries, even
in the course of their duties.
As a result, the President said, our embassies and legations in some countries
had become "virtually isolated" and our foreign-service personnel
in these places seriously demoralized. |