McLeod Say Probes Now Get Full Support, Evening Star (Article, August 1953)
Full Text
McLeod Says Probes Now Get Full Support Of State Department
By Garnett D. Horner
State Department security boss R. W. Scott McLeod said yesterday that Senator McCarthy's investigating subcommittee and other congressional investigators are now receiving the complete and unequivocal support of the State Department--for the "first time in 20 years."
The statement was made in a speech prepared for delivery before the American Legion convention in Topeka, Kan.
The text of the speech was made available at the State Department here. But a spokesman said Mr. McLeod was expressing his own views, and that the speech [had] not been cleared with top officials of the department.
Mr. McLeod's expression of "unequivocal" support for Senator McCarthy's subcommittee raised some eyebrows here, in view of recent indications that the Eisenhower administration was standing up to the Wisconsin Senator on several issues.
Incidents Recalled.
Recalled in this connection were the blocking of Senator McCarthy's effort to investigate Central Intelligence Agency [employees], the recent relaxation of a McCarthy-induced ban on use in the Government's overseas libraries of books by authors accused as Communists or pro-Communists, and the State Department's announced decision against the Senator's advice last week to issue a limited passport to William P. Bundy, CIA official who Senator McCarthy wants to question.
Mr. McLeod told the Legionnaires that when he took office on March 3 he found most State Department [employees] were "good, honest, loyal Americans" but a minority "had blackened the reputation" of the department, he added.
Mr. McLeod said he could not say that there are no Communist agents, no fellow travelers or no homosexuals still employed in the State Department, but he emphasized: "I have no knowledge of any single case in the above three categories where the person is still employed."
"...The executive branch of the Government will never utilize its power to shield or to suppress the facts from the Congress concerning any individual who has been engaged in subversive activities and who should be brought to account for his conduct," Mr. McLeod said.
"Unequivocal Support"
"For the first time in 20 years I can assure you that the House Committee on Un-American Activities under Chairman Velde, the Senate Internal Security subcommittee, under Senator Jenner, and the Special Investigative subcommittee, under Senator McCarthy have received unequivocal support of the State Department."
Recalling that nearly a year ago the people had "voted for a change in Washington," Mr. McLeod said "the progress towards change has not been as rapid as many of us had hoped it would be."
He pointed out that most people in Government now are holdovers from two decades of Democratic administration. He added:
"Sometimes it is extremely difficult because of the Civil Service Act, the Veterans' Preference Act, and the Foreign Service Act to replace an individual whose viewpoint does not coincide with that of the Republican Party.
"In the second, third, and fourth echelon of [employees], the policy which originates at the top must be implemented. Until such time as we can re-educate those [employees] or replace them with proper personnel, the progress which we make is sometimes very slow."
Statements Questioned.
Mr. McLeod's remarks about Senator McCarthy were not the only ones which surprised informed persons here. Here are some others with which many of them took exception:
1. "Under the old Truman program... before a person could be discharged from Government employment... it was incumbent to prove before special hearing boards before counsel that the individual was 'disloyal'." The Eisenhower program is on a much sounder basis, since it takes into account the various behavior patterns which may render an individual a security risk.
Actually, the State Department has had a double-barrelled loyalty-security program since 1947. On July 17, 1947--under the Truman administration--the department set up a Personnel Security Board to rule on dismissal of [employees] accused as security risks. On October 7, 1947, the department made public principles guiding the security program. Among factors to be considered in whether a person should be deemed a security risk it listed such things as habitual drunkenness and sexual perversion.
2. "In accordance with the instruction contained in President Eisenhower's security order, for the first time in the last 20 years we are resolving doubt in favor of the Government."
Former President Truman issued an executive on April 28, 1951, providing that [employees] should be discharged if there was a "reasonable doubt" about their loyalty to the United States. Conrad E. Snow, former chairman of the State Department's Loyalty-Security Board, said in a speech here on February 11, 1952, that such a reasonable doubt standard had been applied from the beginning of the State Department program to eliminate security risks.
