#: 497287 S7/JFK Debate  [POLITICS]
    03-Mar-96  11:34:58
Sb: Prouty Critique 4
Fm: D.T. FUHRMANN 71301,527
To: ALL

Chapter Two, "The CIA in the World of the H-Bomb"

In Chapter II Prouty repeats the theme of sinister conspiracy of grand
historical scope, consisting primarily of "determined financiers,
transnational industrialists, and their crack wall-street lawyers."  Prouty
notes that when Truman became president on 13 April 1945, "he had been vice
president under Roosevelt, but at the time he became President he had never
heard of the secret work on the atom bomb or its creator, the Manhattan
Project."  Well yes, that is true.  OTOH, Truman had been Roosevelt's vice
president for less than 90 days.  The Manhattan Project was the most secret
project of the war, and in an era when vice presidents were less than
figureheads, one who'd been in office for 90 days wasn't likely to have been
briefed.  Yet clearly Truman was briefed on this and numerous other things
within hours of being sworn in as president.   [cf. Donovan, "Conflict and
Crisis: 1945-1948," pp 8-14]

Prouty also states Truman "didn't know" that "the Office of Strategic 
Services had issued a policy paper in April 1945 (before the surrender of 
Germany) stating that the Russians seemed to be seeking to dominate the 
world, and recommending that the U.S. take steps to block Russian 
expansion." Prouty footnotes this as follows: "Office of Strategic 
Services, "Problems and Objectives of United States Policy," April 2, 
1945."  While the lack of any indication of where this document might be 
found is not surprising, the contradiction raised by a quote which 
clearly describes the OSS has having released a report and describes what 
the report said.....as opposed to having the phrasing of something 
actually taken from the report itself. Is it possible Prouty is relying 
here on a second hand description or reference, but leaving the 
impression that it is quoted directly from the original document which he 
cites?  You make the call.

The second paragraph (page 20) begins:

"Furthermore, [Truman] had not been told that an element of the underground
OSS, along with its British counterparts, had been working covertly with the
Nazis and with Nazi sympathizers in Europe as early as September 1944 
and that plans had been made to alienate the United States's wartime 
ally, the Soviet Union, and to create a hostile, bipolar world. Harry 
Truman was not aware of, nor acquianted with, the reality of that 
invisible superpower elite that Winston Churchill called the High Cabal."

Which superpower elite?  Thus far Prouty has provided nothing more than his
assertion that this "high cabal" exists, yet now he refers to it as if 
it were an established fact. Where and when did Churchill refer to  the 
High Cabal"? In what context?  We're not going to learn from Mr. Prouty.

According to Prouty the "High Cabal" had already laid plans to "alienate the
United States's wartime ally, the Soviet Union, and to create a hostile,
bipolar world." Oddly, there is not one word of reference to the Soviet 
Union, and to Russian activities in Eastern Europe.  So what WAS going 
on?????

An April 13 the State Department briefed Truman on some of the problems 
he now faced.  According to Truman's autobiography ("The Memoirs by Harry 
S. Truman," Doubleday, 1955, vol I, pp 14-17), with regard to the Soviet 
union he was told:

"Since the Yalta Conference the Soviet Government has taken a firm and
uncompromising position on nearly every major question that has arisen 
in our relations.  The more important of these are the Polish question, the
application of the Crimea agreement on liberated areas, the agreement on the
exchange of liberated prisoners of war and civilians, and the San Francisco
Conference.  In the liberated areas under Soviet control, the Soviet
Government is proceeding largely on a unilateral basis and does not 
agree that the developments which have taken place justify application of 
the Crimea agreement.  Permission for our contact teams to go into Poland 
to assist in the evacuation of liberated prisoners of war has been 
refused although in general our prisoners have been reasonably well 
treated by Soviet standards.  The Soviet Government appears to desire to 
proceed with the San Francisco Conference but was unwilling to send their 
Foreign Minister. They have asked for a large postwar credit and pending 
a decision on this matter have so far been unwilling to conclude an 
agreement providing for the orderly liquidation of lend-lease aid.  In 
the politico-military field, similar difficulties have been encountered 
in collaboration with the Soviet authorities...." [SOURCE: Berstein & 
Matusow, eds. "The Truman Administration: A Documentary History," p 162].

For a more thorough discussion of the history of this period, I 
recommend John Gaddis' "The United States and the Origins of the Cold 
War: 1945-1947," and Daniel Yergin's "Shattered Peace: The Origins of the 
Cold War and the National Security State."


Continued in part 5......