DISMISSAL OF GENERAL

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26395, 13 April 1951, Page 7

DISMISSAL OF GENERAL

Storm In U.S. Politics (N.Z. Press Association— Copyright) (Rec. 10 p.m.) WASHINGTON, April 11. There is little doubt that General MacArthur will attempt to make a triumphant return to Washington to campaign against the Truman Administration’s foreign policies, says the diplomatic correspondent of Reuters. General MacArthur’s decision not to accept dismissal without a public protest and campaigning made it certain that the next few months would see the bitterest political fight since the attempted impeachment of President Andrew Johnson, the successor to Abraham Lincoln. The consequences to United States unity and its relations with its Allies of General MacArthur’s decision are likely to be historic and far-reaching. It will tend to divide and confuse Americans at a time when the Truman Administration regards their united and wholehearted backing of the mobilisation effort as vital for the rearmament, both of the United States and its Allies.

It may impair the fighting forces' morale by shaking their confidence in their leadership and thus harm the Korean war efforts, which have never been popular, says the correspondent. It seems certain to destroy the last vestiges of the bipartisan Republican and Democrat collaboration on foreign policy issues, and thus make such issues catspaws and makeweights in

the moves and counter-moves in the great political struggle between proTruman and the pro-MacArthur forces. Mr Truman’s supporters are confident that the majority of the American people and of Congress will back him in courageous resistance to General MacArthur’s unprecedented challenge to the President's constitutional authority. This challenge of the military to the civilian arm of the Government is one which Americans by tradition and popular education, have been sensitive from the days of the founding of the Republic. The sections of the Constitution to which Mr Truman appealed were written with this specific threat in view. Impeachment Threat Mr Truman’s supporters do not take seriously the threat of the impeachment and trial of the President from Republican extremists. They questioned even the ability of the proMacArthur forces in Congress to obtain a sufficient majority to issue the invitation to General MacArthur to address a joint session of Congress. General MacArthur will undoubtedly be given opportunity to express his views before Congressional committees.

Television Appearances His return will mean a 3000-mile ioumey from San Francisco to Washington and the emotional impact of his appearances, intensified and magnified by the new and politically powerful television medium, is incalculable.

The question being asked in Washington is how far General MacArthur will permit himself to be pushed by the Republicans’ extremist section. The danger is that General MacArthur, who has been absent from the United States for 15 years, has been divorced from any contact except with those members of the House of Representatives who made frequent pilgrimages to Tokyo and he may be out of touch with the general stream of current American thinking, says the correspondent.