Truman's Palestine Floundering • Laid to Failure to Heed Experts

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Truman's Palestine Floundering • Laid to Failure to Heed Experts EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the ruled. Secretary of State Marshall second of three articles 012 ecent American policy on reluctantly decided to support partition. Palestine. At the same time, though, Marshall told the American dele- By WALLACE R.

DEUEL ration to the General Assembly SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT that the United States would not Of The Binghamton Press and the Chicago Daily News try to win over other governments to partition, but would leave the Washington-This is the inside to decide how they story of how American policy has would vote. been made and carried out in But Truman and his pro-Zionist recent months. advisers changed all this.

They or- Except for a few days in March, ganized one of the highest-powered President Truman has dealt with pressure lobbies ever seen at an the problem of the Holy Land in international gathering. accordance with the wishes of the PARTITION PLAN FAILED Zionists and Democratic Party The President recalled Maj. Gen. politicians. John H.

Hilldring from. retirement One reason why party leaders and sent him to the U.

N. with have demanded that the President support the Zionists is that Re- instructions to corral all the votes he could for partition. publican leaders have promised to Hilldring had no special knowl- do even more for the Jews than edge of Palestine, as he himself Truman has been willing to do freely admits.

He was picked for so far. the vote-corralling • job primarily Democrats fear these • G. O. P. because he has a forceful person- promises will win Jewish votes ality and manner and because he and help determine the outcome would obey his commander-in- of the election. chief like a good soldier and with- FORRESTAL IGNORED i out misgivings, which he did.

VIOLENTLY OPPOSED to American pressure finally lined In making and carrying out his President Truman's Palestine up the necessary support. On Nov.

Palestine policy, Truman has ig- is Defense Secretary 29 the General Assembly voted 33 nored the recommedations of the James Forrestal. to 13 to recommend the dividing State and Defense Departments- of Palestine. so much so that Defense Secretary Bernard M.

Baruch have taken a But events now speedily dis- Forrestal has offered to resign. hand in winning over foreign gov- proved all the basic arguments by The two departments have not ernments to a more helpful even known what Truman's policy attitude toward Israel. which Truman and the pro-Zionist was or who was carrying it out— or how-at certain crucial U. N.

STRONG-ARMED lobby had defended their partition Truman now became alarmed junctures. The latest chapter in the tangled and decided the time had come to Members of the White House tale of American policy on Pales- try to call a halt in the threatening staff have played leading roles in tine goes back to last November, developments.

United States policy, most notably when Truman strong-armed Now, at the eleventh hour, he David K. Niles and Clark Clifford.

United Nations General Assembly Senators and congressmen have into voting for the partition of the turned to the State Department and asked for a new American intervened directly in the problem Holy Land. by calling on foreign governments Partition was what the Zionists policy to save the situation. to support the Zionists or run the wanted.

The Arabs bitterly opposed In accordance with these instruc- tions, the United States, on March risk of having American aid cut off. it. Senator J. Howard McGrath, of Defense Secretary Forrestal also 19, proposed that the U.

N. declare Rhode Island, chairman of the Holy Land a trusteeship. the opposed partition, and expert judg- Democratic National Committee, ment in the State Department On March 25, Truman torpedoed has also had a part in making agreed with Forrestal. this policy. American policy.

However, Forrestal and the State Influential private citizens like Department experts Tomorrow's article will tell the were over-inside story of how this happened.

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"Truman's Palestine Floundering • Laid to Failure to Heed Experts," Scrantonian Tribune, 6 October 1948. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1948-138. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1948-138