Gen. MacArthur ‘smear’ charged
Vandenberg scores Army reading list
Washington (UP) –
Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson today agreed with Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg (R-MI) that the War Department should be “scrupulously careful to avoid the official distribution of partisan or prejudicial material to the Army.”
Mr. Stimson made the statement in reply to a protest by Mr. Vandenberg that a list of recommended magazine articles circulated by the Army War College library included a “smear” article against Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the Senator’s favorite for the 1944 Republican presidential nomination.
List to be eliminated
Mr. Stimson wrote Mr. Vandenberg that the list of magazine articles henceforth would be eliminated from the library bulletin.
Mr. Vandenberg protested that the War Department list referred to the article, printed in the American Mercury, as:
…a comprehensive and objective appraisal of the general as presidential timber, with special reference to the character of his backers and an analysis of his military reputation before Pearl Harbor and after.
Mr. Stimson wrote Mr. Vandenberg that the War College library reprinted the list from a poster sent out each month by Harper & Bros. to public libraries and that the comments reprinted under the title of each article were reproduced exactly from the power.
Selections not approved
Mr. Stimson wrote:
There has been no intent to imply War Department approval of these selections. The sponsorship by a council of librarians is indicated as part of the heading. Monthly circulation of this publication represents fewer than 500 copies.
In order that there may be no opportunity for misunderstanding of the War Department’s position, however, I have directed that the list be eliminated from future issues of the library bulletin.