The American Mess By D. W. BROGAN O LD Washington hands
sometimes amuse themselves in the Press Club bar by debating the question : "What was the greatest period of muddle and confusion you have known here?" And the answer has, in recent•years, been usually the first months of the Truman administration. But I wonder what are the connoisseurs saying now? For the first months of the Eisenhower administration seem likely to rival those of the Truman administration. The administration of all the talents or, at any rate, of all the " know-how " has been sadly lacking in the one fundamental piece of know-how, the know-how of politics. Luck is part of life, and the administra- tion that came in to clear up the mess in Washington may find the voter asking, "What mess? " For the fumbling of the administration plus the sins of politicians for which it had only, nominal responsibility, if that, plus the pure bad luck of the draw, had produced a situation in which Republican pros- pects in 1954 and in 1956 looked dim.
It was in this situation that one of the ablest of President Eisenhower's cabinet officers, the Attorney-General, the only one who has been a real politician, dug up the corpse of Harry Dexter White just before a critical by-election in California, and dug it up in a way that to the careless newspaper reader (are there any others?) suggested the implication, in some vague way, of Mr. Truman. Mr. Brownell is entitled to say, as he does, that he was quoted out of context, that he never dreamed of charging Mr. Truman with disloyalty, and that his basic charge that the Truman administration, through care- lessness or silliness, was grossly negligent in dealing with Communist penetration, is still true. I think that Mr. Brownell is right, but I find it hard to understand that so shrewd a man did not foresee the public uproar or foresee that there would be a lively imputation of political motives.
The second point deserving emphasis is that many Americans do suspect treason in very high places. The charges made against Mr. Truman are not as serious as those made against General Marshall by Senator Jenner. Many Americans think that General Marshall should have got the Stalin Prize, not the Nobel Prize. A great part of the discomfitures of American policy in recent years is attributed to treason to a degree that would astonish English people. This dangerous attitude, so reminiscent of the French nous sommes trahis, has, of course, old historical roots. The greatest traitor in American history was of old American stock, and appointed to a post far more important than any held by Harry Dexter White or Alger Hiss, by no less a person than George Washington. The ghost of Benedict Arnold has never been laid.
Then it is common form in American public life to impute motives, to snarl and shout in a way long out of fashion here. " Vermin " is almost a term of endearment, and the private gossip and public rumour about public figures is one of the more entertaining but, nationally, more damaging features of American life. American politics is no place for a thin-skinned man. (General Eisenhower is, I am told, decidedly thin- skinned.) The next point to notice, and one not so much neglected here as smothered, is that there was Communist penetration, and at a fairly high level, in the Washington of Roosevelt and Truman. Whatever evil Hiss's treachery did in aiding the Russians, it was almost certainly less than the harm he did in making almost any suspicion plausible. Whether Harry Dexter White was a party member or not I do not know, but that he played in with party agents I do not doubt. Mr. Truman was not responsible for the -position he found himself in (though I do not think he took the best way out), but somebody was. And I have been struck, again, by the firm refusal to see what the gravamen of the charges against White and his brethren was. Of what use is it to write to The Times and remind us that when White was passing documents over to Soviet agents the cold war had not started? (I dismiss the argument that White may not have known that they were Soviet agents; a man as simple as that should not have been employed as an office boy.) A high official, bound to secrecy, is not entitled to decide at what stage a foreign government ceases to be worthy of his confidence; his duty is to do his own job and let these higher questions be decided at the proper level. In any case, does anyone believe that it was a mere horror of scientific secrecy or a desire to serve a common good that led Fuchs, Nunn May, Hiss, White down the slippery slope? Why is the traffic all one way? Did White take Lord Keynes into his confidence to help him to negotiate better? What Com- munist physicist has passed secrets on to Lord Cherwell in the spirit of the higher collaboration? I should say that this was nonsense that no one would believe for a moment, if the papers were not full of nonsense that people go on believing for years. But the real damage of the recent disinterring of White was not caused by the misunderstanding of the charge brought by Mr. Brownell or by Mr. Truman's characteristically vivacious replies. -It was done when Messrs. Velde, Jenner and McCarthy insisted on "getting into the act." ' We had the outrageous nonsense of Mr. Velde's slapping a subpcena on Mr. Truman. We had then the still more outrageous nonsense of Senator Jenner's hectoring of Canada. We have since had the open declaration of war on the administration by a more formidable figure than Messrs. Velde and Jenner, Senator McCarthy. These things might, I should have thought, have been foreseen by Mr. Brownell. They were not foreseen by President Eisen- hower, whose too famous Press conference showed how little he was in touch with what was going on. To plan to "take McCarthyism away from McCarthy" may have seemed smart politics, but the Senator is a smart politician himself and has no intention of having his brat kidnapped. All that seems to have happened is that the Senator has been forced to Show his hand a little prematurely, for it is now less ludicrous than it was a few months ago to believe that Senator McCarthy sees himself as Republican candidate for the Presidency in 1956, the heir of Lincoln. We may leave that for the moment. • The last and, probably, most disastrous result of the White revival has been the repercussions in Canada. Here certain preliminary remarks are also necessary. Most Americans know very little about Canada except, possibly, that the Canadian dollar is at a premium. Many think that Canada pays "tribute "to Britain. (It is not long since an Illinois Congress- man suggested that England " transfer " Canada in payment of war debts, lease lend, etc.) Many think that the real centre of Canadian authority is in London (England), not Ottawa. Martin Chuzzlewit is not yet totally out of date. How many people in this country realise that the Chicago Tribune tower not only houses a newspaper, but serves as an elevated rampart from which Colonel McCormick can watch and give warning of redcoats' coming from Ontario to burn Fort Dearborn all over again? It is not unlikely that Senator Jenner has as little knowledge, of the realities of Canadian government as he has of the nature of international relations. Inducing the Secretary of State to act as a post-office for increasingly impudent demands on a sovereign state has been one of Senator Jenner's most disastrous triumphs. The Canadians, who.may Well think that they handled their spy troubles with more skill and suc- cess than either the Americans or English and who have at least as much confidence in the " Mounties" as in the FBI and have already some serious causes of irritation with the policy or non-policy of the United States, are not amused.
Senator Jenner's assumption that a foreign government has any obligations to a committee of either house of Congress (a body of which it has no official cognisance) is only equalled by his assurance that any secrets confided will be kept, although his committee leaks like a badly-patched inner tube. I spent a few days in Canada very recently and that normally phlegmatic people were already developing what Americans call a "slow burn." After all, Canadians of all parties think that they have a real government. Mr. St. Laurent and Mr. Pearson are members of a government that has adequate authority to serve the country. Should they do much, or any- thing, to please whoever is at the moment on top in the Washington version of an all-in wrestling bout ? No, a hundred times no I. (The Canadians are given to understate- ment.) And as for their views on the general situation ? They can, I think, be summed up in a famous American story. A lone cowboy is riding across the lone prairie when he comes to a single-track railway down which two express trains are dashing at full speed towards each other. He thinks a moment and, addressing his faithful steed, remarks : "That's a hell of a way to run a railroad."
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