Vandenberg’s silence costs shadow across Allies’ peace session
Michigan Republican refuses to say whether he’ll become delegate
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
WASHINGTON – Sen. Arthur H. Vandenberg (R-Michigan) said today he had received no invitation to be a member of the American delegation to the United Nations conference at San Francisco. He refused to say whether he would accept if invited.
Mr. Vandenberg said he had seen newspaper reports that he had been named to the delegation in a White House announcement. But he said he had not heard from either the White House or State Department.
He is one of three Republicans designated yesterday to be among the eight American delegation members.
It was believed he would accept, but so long as any question remained about his plans the degree of Republican cooperation in drafting a post-war security treaty remained in some doubt.
Asked if he would accept an official invitation, Mr. Vandenberg replied: “As the President says, that is an ‘iffy’ question.”
His remarks clouded, for the moment at least, what had been a bright prospect that Republicans would accept joint political responsibility for the San Francisco conference. That acceptance in turn had been expected to speed the proposed anti-aggression treaty toward ratification.
The other Republicans named to the delegation were Rep. Charles A. Eaton (R-New Jersey), senior minority member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Cmdr. Harold E. Stassen. the 37-year-old political fireball from Minnesota.
Approval needed
The broad outlines of the Anglo-Russian-American plans for world stabilization evidently appeal to Mr. Vandenberg.
But he had not endorsed the partition of Poland nor, especially, the apparent assignment of the cities of Wilno and Lwow to Russia. There will be bitter objection by many persons of Polish extraction in the United States. Many of them live and vote in Mr. Vandenberg’s State of Michigan.
Membership on the American delegation probably would require direct or indirect approval of allotment of pre-war eastern Poland to Russia.
Mr. Vandenberg is the key figure among the three Republicans. If he balks the momentum of early anti-aggression treaty action would diminish considerably.
Avoids Wilson’s mistake
Announcement of the delegation personnel, with Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius Jr., as chairman, followed within 24 hours the release of news that the Big Three in the Crimea had agreed on the pattern of the post-war world.
Members of Congress, with astonishingly few exceptions, were still speaking well if sometimes cautiously of the program when the San Francisco conference delegation was announced.
Unlike Woodrow Wilson, who went alone to Versailles in 1919, President Roosevelt is inviting individuals among his political opposition to help write the peace bond that he must ask the Senate to sign.
Selection of Cmdr. Stassen will be offensive to some Republicans. Although twice elected Governor of Minnesota and a potential 1948 GOP presidential nominee, Cmdr. Stassen is not loved by all his fellow party leaders. He went far beyond most Republicans for full United States participation in world affairs.
Hurt by Ball’s bolt
Cmdr. Stassen appointed Sen. Joseph H. Ball (R-Minnesota) to the Senate. Mr. Ball in turn managed the commander’s 1944 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, but finally bolted the GOP ticket last autumn. Cmdr. Stassen is smeared with that bolt. But he undoubtedly has a considerable following in the party below the grade of top leader.
Other members of the U.S. delegation will be former Secretary of State Cordell Hull with the courtesy title of senior adviser; Chairman Tom Connally (D-Texas) of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Chairman Sol Bloom (D-New York) of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Dean Virginia Gildersleeve of Barnard College, New York City.
Labor not represented
There was no labor representation on the delegation, an exclusion likely to sound the alarm siren among some of the President’s union supporters. But the service man with a gun float or in a foxhole will be represented by the big bodied, blond young man from Minnesota.
There were some strictly off-record but emphatic Senate protests against the delegation personnel. Senators are jealous of their treaty powers. Among them it was remarked that the two House members, Mr. Bloom and Mr. Eaton, had no business on the delegation.
Problem for Republicans
Cmdr. Stassen’s selection was condemned as a political reward, for Mr. Ball’s bolt rather than as recognition of the fighting services. Mr. Roosevelt has posed a nice problem for some Republicans by naming Mr. Vandenberg to the delegation. The Senator recently has been discussing foreign relations in a manner both forceful and challenging. Many Republicans, including Gov. Thomas E. Dewey, have made public commitments to his ideas.
Now, if Mr. Vandenberg joins in making a treaty which he reports conforms with his major objectives, it will be difficult but not impossible, for others to go all out in challenge to the pact. Persons who know Mr. Roosevelt well do not doubt he is having a chuckle about that – wherever he may be.
Senate recognized
Discussing the delegation, Mr. Connally said:
The President recognizes the functions of the Senate and his action indicates his desire to have the utmost cooperation peep the Senate and the executive.
Mr. Ball expressed approval of the whole trend of foreign policy as charted at the Crimean Conference by Mr. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Marshal Joseph V. Stalin.
Mr. Ball’s statement seemed to ensure that Cmdr. Stassen will jump at the chance to appear again on the political stage. He is serving now on the staff of Adm. William F. Halsey Jr. Mr. Eaton is expected to accept delegate membership, but is a much lesser figure in the party than either Mr. Vandenberg or Cmdr. Stassen.