Mr. Truman's Balloon

When Harry Truman went to Fulton he knew what Churchill intended to say. Whether or not he read the speech, he had been briefed on Churchill's views. Afterwards he could gaze on the magnificent trial balloon and watch the effect as the world, and Russia, reacted.

There was plenty of reaction, most of it bad. A few Congressmen thought the speech "realistic"; the majority were cold, some were "shocked." While the Wall Street Journal thought it brilliant, with a "hard core of indisputable fact," Manhattan's devoutly pro-Soviet PM angrily called it an "ideological declaration of war against Russia."

Other newspapers were somewhere in between, but generally viewed with distaste and alarm the kind of military marriage proposed by Churchill. The consensus: such an alliance would only provoke Russian suspicion, already acute, and pull the props of trust and confidence right out from under UNO--or so they feared.

"Mildly Firmer." Mr. Truman had nothing to say. But what Mr. Truman's Administration did supplied some clues to what he thought. In Washington, U.S. military and naval chiefs continued to meet with Britons and Canadians on the Combined Chiefs of Staff, in as close a military alliance on a very high level as even Winston Churchill could desire. Said one U.S. admiral: "I hope to God the British staff does stay."

The U.S. Army announced officially that it was barring Communists and other "subversive or disaffected" personnel from all "sensitive assignments" such as radar, atomic energy, decoding.

Everyone had carefully refrained so far from inviting UNO's Atomic Energy Commission to the forthcoming test at Bikini. Army & Navy preparations for that provocative display of power went on apace.

Even Secretary of State Byrnes carried out his promise to be firmer, in what one high-placed official called at least a "mildly firmer" way. He informed Moscow that the U.S. "cannot remain indifferent" to Russia's continued occupation of Iran. He reminded Moscow a second time that the U.S. did not like the way Russian troops were stripping Manchuria.

Now the Showdown? Moscow newspapers called Churchill's speech "aggressive." And Moscow rapped Byrnes's finger when the Secretary tried to point out to Bulgaria how it could make its government more democratic. Bulgaria, Moscow made plain, is Russia's sphere.

No one had any idea where these moves and countermoves would lead, where or when a showdown would come--or whether there would be any showdown. The greatest worry was that Russia would flounce out of UNO and go her independent way. The President said hopefully that he did not believe she would.

The President only hoped. He still improvised. The best and the worst that could be said of his foreign policy now was that it was characteristic of him--Harry Truman hates to be pushed around. But like most Americans, he has to be pushed before he does anything.

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