Truman Hits Out At Senate “Sabotage” Of Foreign Policy

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23218, 1 April 1950, Page 5

Truman Hits Out At Senate “Sabotage” Of Foreign Policy

(N.Z.P.A. —Reuter—Copyright.) (10 a.m.) WASHINGTON. "March 31. President Truman yesterday accused some Senate Republicans of aiding the Kremlin by attempting to sabotage the United States foreign policy.

Speaking at a press conference at Key West, Florida, President Truman said the Republican efforts to discredit the State Department in its fight in the cold war were just as bad as shooting American soldiers in the back in a hot war.

The President said he was fed up with the attacks on the State Department by the Republican Senators Joseph . McCarthy (Wisconsin), Styles Bridges (New Hampshire), Kenneth Wherry (Nebraska) and declared; “The greatest asset the Kremlin has in the partisan attempt in the Senate to sabotage the bipartisan foreign policy of the United States.”

President Truman spoke sharply and bitterly of the attack on the Secretary of State, Mr. Dean Acheson, and the Ambassador-at-Large, Dr. Philip Jessup. Asked if he thought Senator McCarthy was getting anywhere with his charges of communism in the State Department, the President replied he thought Senator McCarthy was the Kremlin’s greatest asset in the United States.

The President praised Senators Arthur Vandenberg (Republican, Michigan) and former Secretary of War, H. L. Stimson, who is another Republican. He said he was considering the appointment of an outstanding Republican to succeed Dr. Jessup as Ambassador-at-Large eventually as part of the bipartisan world policy. Dr. Jessup is on leave from Columbia University.