PLEADING PRESTIGE AGAINST PURGE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP68-00046R000200080012-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 20, 2014
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: December 20, 1952
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT -7ntell1gence,
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release @ 50-Yr 2014/03/20:
CIA-RDP68-00046R000200080012-7
D/411%,7*J11 ow.) PICV113
Circ.: m. 67,326
S. 72,535
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DEC 20 1952
Pleading -Prestige Against
?
? Even now?after the eleventh hour; at
a few minutes, before twelve?there comes,
from the outgoing Administration forces
in Washington, a renewal of protest
agas,irfst fulther disloyalty investigations.
Why? Ot is:amazing: the protesters aver
that t4ese, public inquiries "injure U. S.
prestige abroad."
Some. iersons still of considerable
position 14"so. Some said it at the start.
Some said, it during the -repent campaign.
.All .einp:loy such emphasis, or repetition as '
to cast,tioubts, not upon their motives, nor
yet ,upon' the testimony (pro or 'con), but
upon their own 'critical qualifications.
,P.regtery what, according to the diplo-
matic:dictionary, is "prestige?"
Just where abroad have we injured it,
or jngt where may we injure it, through
these investigations?
? And, w4y?.._ , . .
Ex-,Secretary Hull could be excused for
his opinion-An ailing man, who never re-
covered from hietreatment received at the .
hands, of Franklin, Roosevelt, and who,
while it*office, believed that all the old ,
bottles of .foreign-policy could safely be
.filled by the new wine of reciprocal
, trade-agreements. .
' EX-!Searetary Marshall could be ex-
. cuSed..Bred a soldier, and grievously aware
of failure?in his 'pre-secretarial diplomatic :
mission:to China?he accepted the State
portfolio ieluetantly, berhaps moved by a
deep,Sense of gratitude, as well as of duty,
' to his corrimander-in-chief, Captain Harry.
.General'.'Marshall has ever since, with one
day's' eiception, remained a disappointed
and beiviidered gentleman.
-But.41arely, by now, statesman Harry
Ought:, now 'better, or know enough to
seek .aVice from those who do know bet-"
' ter. He was a wartime Senator; later; he
hosse4:.'.9nr Potsdam adyepture-7--wherein
prestiO :(.and much more) was indeed sur-
tendered: . Why does he believe that dis-
loyalty ,investigations injure our, prestige
at the preseik juncture?
' in diplomatic language, to say that a
country possesses ?prestige is to.. say that
the country poSsesses the requisite' military
power, and the requisite OlvOnmentar de-
termination for .probable .,q.,forcenient of
Its foreig-poli6les.loNOlin Chief Execu-
tive. Truman Contends that the U. S. will
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release
CIA-RDP68-00046R000200080012-7
? - ? ,
Vestigation of possibly treaonabi,tiQfl5
with the povernmeht, C. E. Trintrel4lip-
lomatically speaking; Contends':
(1) That our ostensible friends abroad
will lose their faith in us as protectors. '
(2) And that our potentiac eneinies
abroad will, therefore, draw nearer. tk, the
point of waging open war upon us. ?). ?
? Yet: .r. -
?'Those foreign friends are the so-,,Called
"democratic" .countries of Western;Aurope.
We have hired their friendshipAy the
Mahshall Plan. Is Mr. Truman saY10,:1n
voice perfectly audible, across the.Atlan-
tic, that we have bought pigs'AVokes?
That these countries will desert Vs4,irs 'Soon
as they have got eveit.'tent we can:give
them?
Why should Britain and Franiit be
shocked by any revelations our tivesti-
gators make? Britain had titled traitiOrs as
long ago as World War War I; In Prance,
highly placed traitors have been' '50- 1
centimes a dozen since 1869and. both
Britain and France 'have unmasked some
of their worst offenders in public..
-Our "foreign enemies" are Russia ? and
her creatures: If, as Centr.al...Parelllge.noe..i
Agency Chief. Bedell Smith-affirms, there
atrS07cersrpieS in our Government; is it to
be supposed that Russia does not already
know more about them than our investi-
gators can conceivably discovei?
Naive as Mr. Truman has:ever bdtt in
foreign-affairs, it is unimaginable that he
.should really believe the exposure of our
traitors will _lessen any Soviet dread of us:
Soviet Russia herself invented the Purge
?the Purge Wholesale and Public.. The
more thorough and public our investiga-
tions, the more the 'Soviets will fear and
respect us?for, in the opinion of Stalin's I
Kremlin, the public, wholesale arid ,fre-
quent Pu o is the sign-manual. of
strength.
"Prestige!" It is a word of French Man-
ufacture, from the Latin. Originally? it
signified "trickery"?doubtless Mr. ,Tru-
man still thinks it signifies "illusions." In
non-diplomatic tPeech, it implies "Charin!'
?doubtless, Our clothes-conscious Pres- .
ident thinks it ,entails something bought
across theqcounter,`, pp,. purchased in the
iff:?a,n international
beauty-parlor: ; ? ?,
@50-Yr 2014/03/20: HT KAVFMAN