THE PRESIDENCY: Embarrassing Half Hour

Harry Truman last week decided to turn his regular Thursday press conference into one of his attacks on “newspapers and slick magazines.” The half an hour session was very embarrassing—but not for newspapers and slick magazines. And not for Harry Truman, who is often blissfully unaware of whether his foot is in his shoe or his mouth. The victims were Truman’s staff, whose unenviable lot it is to stand holding their breaths in dread of what the 32nd President of the U.S. may say next.

He began by reading a prepared statement in defense of his order (TIME, Oct. 8) to Government officials for greater secrecy in matters of military security. He had scarcely begun reading when he broke in to say that a survey by Yale University found “95% of all our [Government] information was public property.” He then laid down the two conflicting principles that are present in every debate over the release of military information: 1) nobody can seriously argue that military secrets should be made public; 2) on the other hand, he did not want military secrecy to be made a cloak for withholding information about the Government which the people had a right to know. Truman’s prepared statement made sense—on its face. Government officials must take the responsibility of saying in each case whether military security outweighs the public right to information. This responsibility carries with it a grave and difficult duty for the Government to play fair with press and public.

Peculiar Restatement. As soon as he had finished reading. Truman began contradicting the main point of his statement and showing how far he was from playing fair. He made a peculiar and sensational restatement of his remark about 95% of Government information being public property. On the second round, he said that 95% of the Government’s information classified as secret has been revealed by newspapers and slick magazines, and that is what he was trying to stop.

Asked for examples, Truman gave some. The outstanding case, he said, was the publication (in January 1949) by FORTUNE of a map showing atomic installations in the U.S.

FORTUNE promptly issued a statement that all the information on the map came from Truman’s Atomic Energy Commission, that the AEC had cleared the map in final form and had been so pleased with it that AEC ordered 500 extra copies for distribution. It was also a fact that Harry Truman, in person, later cleared essentially the same map as part of a MARCH OF TIME film.

Truman’s next example was the publication by many newspapers of American city maps with arrows pointing to key points which were prime bombing targets.

Several newsmen present knew that these maps had been distributed to the press by Truman’s Civil Defense Administration.

Whispered Counsel. When it was suggested to Truman that the information in question had been given out by Government agencies, he said that he didn’t care who gave it out, that the publishers had no business to use it if they had the welfare of the U.S. at heart.

Shortly after this statement, which dumfounded reporters, Truman’s press secretary, long-suffering Joseph Short, broke in to whisper to the President.

“What did Joe say?” asked a correspondent. The President announced that Short had said security officers would be specially trained to maintain uniform standards of security classifications.

A few minutes later, the conference got on the subject of the Air Force guided missile, the Matador. The first public hint of this story came in a San Francisco speech by Truman when he boasted that the U.S. had some “fantastic” new weapons. Subsequently, a TIME story about the Matador (TIME, Sept. 17) was submitted for clearance to proper authorities in Truman’s Defense Department. They deleted some material that violated security, and then refused to return the edited copy because the story touched off a row in the Pentagon. The fight and the delay were not about security; they turned on what is called “policy.” In this sense, “policy” means rivalry between the services. The Army and the Navy did not want the Air Force to get the publicity for the Matador because they have guided missile projects of their own. Said a Pentagon security review officer: “This is not a security fight; this is a political fight in the Joint Chiefs of Staff.” Finally, the Defense Department released the Matador story (with picture) to all newspapers and magazines.

He Didn’t Remember. On the day of publication of the Matador story, Truman was asked if this was one of the “fantastic” weapons he referred to at San Francisco. He said yes. Asked about this at his press conference last week, Truman said that he did not remember saying yes.

A reporter asked what he was supposed to do if the Defense Department handed him a story. The President countered by asking the reporter if he believed in saving the U.S. from attack.

Just preceding this discussion, Short broke in again to whisper to the President. Truman explained that Short wanted him to make it clear that the Executive Order on tighter security applied to Government workers. The President added, however, that his own comments applied to everybody who gave away state secrets.

After the conference, the Greek chorus came in again in the form of a mimeographed statement to the press prepared by the White House staff. It said exactly the opposite of what the President had been saying for half an hour.

Key paragraph in the statement:

“Citizens who receive military information for publication from responsible officials qualified to judge the relationship of such information to the national security may rightfully assume that it is safe to publish the information.”

Chaos, Not Control. At no time in his conference or later did Truman display any embarrassment over the implications of his charge that 95% of “secret” information had been improperly published. If this is a fact, as the President seems to believe, it means that 95% of U.S. secret information has been handed to unauthorized persons, in violation of law, by Government employees for whose security the President is responsible.

The truth is that, in the administrative chaos over which Truman presides, a great many officials disclose some information and withhold other information for reasons of interservice and inter-agency rivalry. Truman can’t control his subordinates (much less Congressmen), and he is blaming editors for the results.