Accent on Brass

With General Marshall's appointment as Secretary of State, the world noted with some concern the emergence of top U.S. military & naval officers as the top dispensers of U.S. foreign policy.

In the occupation hotspots the generals had a monopoly. In Japan it was General Douglas MacArthur; in Austria, the Fifth Army's old boss, General Mark Clark (soon to be replaced by Lieut. General Geoffrey Keyes); in Germany, Lieut. General Lucius D. Clay, now also commander of all U.S. troops in Europe. As contact man with the field, General Marshall had another Army ranker as Assistant Secretary of State for occupied areas: Major General John H. Hilldring, onetime Civil Affairs Division chief in the War Department.

The embassies were loaded, too. Ike Eisenhower's wartime right hand, General Walter Bedell Smith, was in Moscow. Vice Admiral Alan G. Kirk, who had a big part in the Navy show at Sicily and Normandy, was in Belgium. The Marines onetime commandant. General Thomas Holcomb, was in South Africa.

There were scores of lesser fry in lesser posts and missions. Counting them up, the world could take note of a line in General Marshall's statement on China last week: "Though I speak as a soldier, I must here also deplore the influence of the military. Their dominance accentuates the weakness of civil government."

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