He Won’t Get Away With It
November 26, 1951 — Amsterdam Evening Recorder

The Mossadegh Project | November 6, 2019                          


U.S. President Harry S. Truman (1884-1972)

Lead editorial in The Amsterdam Evening Recorder and Daily Democrat, a New York newspaper, on the upcoming 1952 Presidential race. Truman ended up not running after all.

Harry Truman editorial archive



NEXT YEAR’S ELECTION

If President Truman has his way, the 1952 national Campaign will be fought out exclusively on foreign issues. At least that was what was implied in a speech he made before the Women’s National Democratic Club in Washington after flying all the way from Key West.

What Mr. Truman said, in effect, was that it would be all right if the Republicans wanted to argue on foreign policies. Anything else, such as reference to mink coats, scandals in the Internal Revenue Department, or the peddling of influence in the RFC would constitute a “dirty, smear campaign”, of which he wants no part. [Reconstruction Finance Corporation]

Since the President made no mention of high taxes and the skyrocketing cost-of-living, one naturally gathers that such items are also on the tabu list. But the high point of the Truman address was unquestionably his reference to the “special interests,” “slush funds,” and “sleight-of-hand artists” with which the Democrats will have to contend in 1952. Here he was on much firmer ground, for experience should have provided Mr. Truman with a first-hand knowledge of such things.

Contrary to what the President has to say on the subject, there will be no need for the Republicans to lie when they start talking about corruption. Congressional investigations have disclosed beyond dispute that official immorality is not confined to a few sporadic cases in Washington. The present Administration is shot through with corruption from top to bottom.

Not only friends, but friends of friends of the Administration have been getting special favors and privileges at the expense of the taxpayers. Connections between Communism and the State Department have been proved, as have tieups between high government officials and the organized underworld. [proved?] And much of this wrong-doing has been brought to light by members of the President’s own party.

Mr. Truman, of course, is entitled to attempt to draw the battlelines for the 1952 campaign, but he won’t get away with it. The record is there for all to see, and the facts are not going to be made more palatable by cries of “smear” and “red herring.”


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Related links:

The Unpardonable Sin | The Town Journal, Jan. 1954 editorial

Mr. Truman Exposes His Own Flaws | The Spokane Daily Chronicle, Dec. 15, 1951

An Appeal To Vote | Letter to the Editor (August 2, 1952)



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