Abstract

Truman and the State Department

This article focuses on misgivings of U.S. President Harry S. Truman towards the U.S. State Department. Edward Stettinius, Secretary of State is reported to have come to Washington in great alarm and to have left chastened. Obviously one of the issues on which he was put on the carpet was Argentina. He assured his radio audience that our vote for its admission did not constitute a blanket endorsement of the policies of the Argentine government, but that on the contrary with many of these policies both the government and the people of the U.S. have no sympathy. Truman will find himself increasingly unhappy in this and other situations so long as he delays the essential task of naming a new Secretary of State and reorganizing the State Department.