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{
    "localId": "498160185",
    "label": "Letter from Myra Hornbuckle to Harry S. Truman with Attached Newspaper Clippings",
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    "id": "498160185",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/498160185",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Letter from Myra Hornbuckle to Harry S. Truman with Attached Newspaper Clippings",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/498160185",
    "collections": [
        "Bess W. Truman Papers",
        "Family Correspondence Files"
    ],
    "subjects": [
        "Truman, Mary Jane, 1889-1978",
        "Truman, Margaret (Mary Margaret), 1924-2008"
    ],
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    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/498160185",
    "naId": 498160185,
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    "productionDates": [
        {
            "logicalDate": "1947-01-01",
            "year": 1947
        }
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{
    "seq": 5,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-bwt/6171940/6283303/6283303-08-005.tif",
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    "ocrText": "Brilliant Amateur\nIn the White House\nFew postmortems of the late conflict will hold\nthe interest contained in the memoirs of Henry\nEDITORIAL PAGE\nSC\nL. Stimson, the sage secretary of war of the\nRoosevelt administration. Life has saved to Mr.\nTHE DENV\nStimson an amazing integrity and vitality of\nintellect into his eightieth year.\nMr. Stimson's biography promises to fill in a\nMONDAY, DECEM\nfurther aspect of the dilettantism which SO\ngreatly characterized the now-brilliant, now-\nThe Daily Worker\nmistaken leadership of Franklin D. Roosevelt.\nEnemies of the late president will not find\nWill Be Delighted\ngreat comfort in the Stimson account, portions\nte\nof which appear in the January Ladies' Home\nSenator Robert A. Taft has taken up his knife\nt\nJournal. Stimson is, for all his criticism, an\nto whittle down the Marshall plan. In char-\nr\nadmirer of the Roosevelt qualities, erratic though\nacteristic fashion, he did not come out flatly\nthey often appeared. But the former secretary\nand forthrightly against the European recovery\nof war records some of the errors of headstrong\nprogram; instead, he implied he would favor\nmilitary leadership by the late, great amateur\na drastic scaling-down of the estimates sub-\nstrategist.\nmitted by the Truman administration. But the\nnet effect would be very much the same.\nIn the military field, those errors may rank\nwith some of the miscalculations of statecraft\nSenator Taft is a crude surgeon-as he showed\nattributed to Roosevelt in his other role of ama-\nin his amputated anti-inflation program-and\nthe operation he proposes on the Marshall plan\nteur diplomat. Thus Roosevelt and that other\nwill cut close to the heart.\ngreat dilettante, Churchill, were responsible for\nIn a Washington interview, the Ohioan-\nthe year's postponement of Operation Bolero, the\nchairman of the important senate Republican\nlanding in Normandy.\npolicy committee-took a double slash at the\nIt is not easy to assess the results of this deci-\nrecovery program. He said that a 17-billion-\nsion, which was opposed by both Secretary Stim-\ndollar aid outlay would \"wreck\" the national\nson and General Marshall. The year in which\neconomy and that large-scale American spend-\nthe Normandy landing was deferred was also a\ning was not essential to the restoration of\nyear in which our strategic bombing was break-\nEurope.\ning the industrial backbone of Germany and in\nIn those opinions, he directly contradicted the\nwhich our supplies were building up and our\nexperts of both political parties who have\ntroops getting a valuable baptism of fire in\nstudied the domestic and foreign aspects of the\nAfrica, Sicily and Italy. These factors had an\nproposed aid program. The Krug and Harriman\nundoubtedly strong role in the success of the\ncommittees, after searching studies, both strong-\nNormandy invasion when it was brought off\nly verified America's capacity to undertake a\nlater.\nprogram of this scope. And the conclusions of\nOn the other hand, during this year Allied\nbipartisan investigators are almost unanimous\nforces were committed on relatively narrow and\nin the belief that a program of this order is es-\ncostly fronts in the Mediterranean, calling for an\nsential to preserve the freedom of western\nexpenditure of strength which was not matched\nEurope.\nby a comparable weakening of the enemy. The\nSenator Taft told reporters that persons visit-\nbalance sheet in lives and materiel is a grim\ning Europe haven't seen evidence of \"complete\nproblem in accounting for military scholars.\ncollapse,\" and he continued with this amazing\nMr. Stimson believes Roosevelt made an equal-\nobservation:\nly grave error of judgment in the Japanese war\n\"People don't completely collapse. They go on\nthrough his failure to support the late Gen.\nliving anyway.\"\nJoseph W. Stilwell. \"His enemies,\" Mr. Stimson\nThat sentence offers an extremely revealing\npointedly observes of General Stilwell, \"were\nclue to Senator Taft's thinking. He believes that\nof four kinds-Japanese, Chinese, British and\nwhatever happens Europe will still be there.\nAmericans.\"\nBut he fails to consider what kind of Europe\nGeneral Stilwell's great task was to get\nit will be.\nChiang Kai-shek to fight the Japanese. American\nIn this interview, the Ohioan has shown him-\nsupplies, pushed to China at vast expense and\nself dangerously indifferent to the purposes of\nexertion, were hoarded by Chiang for later use\nthe Marshall plan. He is calloused to the hu-\nagainst his own domestic opponents. When\nmanitarian objectives. He is blind to the critical\n\"Vinegar Joe\" issued what amounted to an ulti-\nrelationship which the program bears to na-\nmatum to Chiang to fight or lose American aid,\ntional security.\nRooseyelt refused to back him up. Stilwell was\nThe European recovery program should not\nwithdrawn as American area commander upon\nbe considered beyond criticism; but the opposi-\nChiang's demand.\ntion should be deeply considered and construc-\nHistory may rate the Stilwell affair as the big-\ntive. Senator Taft's unfortunately has not been.\ngest miscalculation of the amateur strategist in\nHe is playing directly into the hands of the\nthe White house. If Chiang had been forced to\nCommunists and fellow travelers who want to\nfight the Japanese-and Washington had sup-\nsee the plan entirely defeated. His opposition\nported him with all requisite aid-the Commu-\noffers a rebirth of the prewar alliance between\nnists might not now be sweeping across north\nthe isolationists and the Communists. We shall\nChina. The Nationalist armies, instead of the\nnot be surprised to see editorial commendation\nRussians and their Chinese confederates, would\nin the Daily Worker.\nhave been in position to fill the vacuum in the\nnorth when Japan collapsed.\nStimson concludes with this meaty evaluation\nof the late president:\n\"Franklin Roosevelt as a wartime interna-\ntional leader proved himself as good as one man\ncould be-but one man was not enough to keep\ntrack of so vast an undertaking.\"\nThat sounds like history's clue to the character\nof the four-term leader. He could not share his\nleadership."
}