Cochran Biography Descr ibes StruggleAgainst Pro-Arab Views in Truman Era
Harry S. Truman's historic
record in the presidency will
always contain special em-
phasis on the rebirth of Is-
rael and his role in recogni-
tion of the new state.
Bert Cochran of the faculty
of the New School of Social
Research in New York, in
"Harry Truman and the
Crisis Presidency," published
by Funk and Wagnalls and
distributed by Thomas Y.
Crowel Co., relates the con-
troversy at the White House
when the pro-Arab elements
were battling against his
friendly attitude towards
Zionism.
Cochran links the issue
with Truman's "play for Jew-
ish votes," as he claims in
his reference to the early
controversies over the Middle
East. He states:
"Truman did not neglect to
play for Jewish votes and
campaign contributions. For
two years he had been back-
ing and filling between the
State Department and Zion-
ists while the struggle be-
tween Jew and Arab mount-
ed to a climax in the Near
East. (Gen. George C.) Mar-
shall, (Robert A.) Lovett,
Loy Henderson, like their
counterparts in the British
Foreign Office, were maneu-
vering to keep friendly rela-
tions with the Arab rulers.
(James) Forrestal was mobi-
lizing sentiment inside and
outside the administration for
a pro-Arab policy, called for,
in the opinion of bankers and
oil corporations, by both im-
perial and economic require-
ments. Truman was person-
ally sympathetic to the Zion-
ist cause, probably influ-
enced by his earlier cordial
associations with (Eddie)
Jacobson, his partner in the
haberdashery business, and
with Jewish supporters in St.
Louis. Now he felt there were
pressing reasons to corral
Jewish support for his ad-
ministration.
man's four appointments
bolicy determination.' He (Eddie Jacobson) is not even personalities — Albert Ein- tilted the court to the right
said it all,' Clifford recalled mentioned in the story, al- stein, Bernard Baruch and and to the second-rate."
angrily, 'in a righteous God- though the author wrote about scores of others. And there
The Cochran story adds im-
damned Baptist tone.' Tru- the Truman and Jacobson are comments on the Truman pressively to further under-
man closed the matter by Haberdashery and included a role in naming Supreme standing of the Truman era
saying 'We must follow the photograph of it in the book. Court justices. In this con- and the many aspects of the
Many aspects of the Coch- nection Butler-Van Devanter-
position General Marshall
ran story are valuable. He McReynolds cabal. The au- late President's "heroic de-
has advocated.'
thor's contention is that "Tru- sign and titanic proportions."
"Afterward Lovett began refers to many important
wavering on the pro-Arab
course. He had several talks
with Clifford and came
around to his way of think-
tion of demand by American the recent rise to oil-based
ing. When State officials re-
By WILLIAM SAPHIRE
consumers of energy. He power and influence of the
versed themselves, Truman
JTA Staff Writer
omitted mention of the Mid- fanatical Israel-hating, West-
approved Clifford's proposi-
(Copyright 1973, JTA, Inc.)
baiting Cal. Muammar el-
tion that the United States
The increasing dependence dle East conflict. To have Qadaffi, leader of Libya's
be the first to tender recog- of the Western world and its linked oil to Israel, analysts
nition to Israel. In May, when leader and protector — the of the President's message ruling military junta. Qadaffi
the British mandate expired, United States — on Middle say, would have been to has already demonstrated his
the United States extended East oil has become the focus make a connection that the ability to subvert African
defacto recognition—sixteen of serious attention by politi- State Department has sought regimes with cash and propa-
minutes after the official cal and economic experts, to persuade Saudi Arabia and ganda. More volatile and un-
predictable than Egypt'
proclamation of the new strategists and planners in others to reject.
At best, however, these are late President Gamal Abd
state. (It was a typical Tru- recent months. While it may
man performance, however. be debatable that an "energy long-term solutions accord- Nasser, Qadaffi possesses
De jure recognition was still crisis" exists for the West at ing to most experts. Capt. Nasser's charisma and, some
withheld, and the arms em- this m om e n t, irrefutable William F. Cass, a retired observers believe, may suc-
bargo that the State Depart- facts are the soaring price Coast Guard officer now at ceed where Nasser failed in
ment had instituted was not of oil, the ever present threat the Department of Transpor- uniting the Arab world under
lifted. Numbers of liberals, of shortages and the vulnera- tation as an oil expert, pre- .a banner of fierce national-
among whom pro-Zionism bility of the oil transportation dicted recently that "If ism and Islamic puritanism.
Henry A. Kissinger, Presi-
was intense, considered his routes from source to market events are allowed to follow
reprehensible. which could create not one a natural course, the U.S. dent Nixon's national secur-
oscillations
Eleanor Roosevelt wanted to but a series of crises in the will almost certainly face on ity advisor, has begun a re-
8-10 year period beginning in view of U.S. policy in the
resign as UN delegate. Dor- future.
1975-77 of critical dependence Middle East, taking into ac-
othy Schiff, owner of the New
The oil problem is not sim-
count the contradiction be-
York Post, refused to support ply one of supply and de- on Middle East oil."
Growing Arab financial tween American military and
him in the election because mand but a complex of po-
of his shiftiness on this ques- litical, diplomatic, economic power based on oil has been political support for Israel
demonstrated in the recent and better relations with the
tion.
and ideological ramifications.
Cochran took seriously the These are global in scope but iternational monetary crises Arab states. In Dr. Kissin-
"Jewish vote" question. He impinge most directly on the that led to the second de- ger's world of realpolitik, the
states, early in his book, that bitter Arab-Israeli conflict, valuation of the U.S. dollar. oil question doubtlessly looms
One uncertain element is large.
"Truman courted the Jews," no closer to solution now
that: "It was widely known than 25 years ago.
that his partner in the long-
The stark fact which looms
defunct haberdashery busi- potentially much larger than
ness was a Jew. David Bern- the present military "bal-
stein, a well known Zionist ance" and political impasse
in St. Louis, was prominent in the Middle East is that the
PARIS (JTA)—The Israeli cused the United States of
on his campaign committee. Arab states—a few of them—
ambassador,
Asher Ben Na- having inspired the "Libyan
But the partner's full name sit on the world's largest
tan, and French foreign min- Mirage crisis" for commer-
known oil reserves. Accord- ister, Michel Jobert, differed cial reasons.
ing to the latest and best sharply over whether 18
De l'Estoile, a high-ranking
estimates, 60-62 per cent of French Mirage jets sold to member of the French Min-
the proven reserves are in Libya have been stationed in istry of Defense, told a press
the Middle East, in a region Egypt.
conference here:
Ben Natan, speaking to
"A splendid commercial
BONN (JTA)—Between 600 extending from the Persian
and 1,000 people carrying ban- Gulf to the Eastern Mediter- French diplomatic correspon- venture could lie hidden be-
dents, insisted that Israel has hind this affair (the Libyan
ners reading "32 Years Are ranean.
Of the estimated 367 billion irrefutable evidence that the Mirage crisis). You should
Enough" and "Freedom for
Hess" marched last Friday barrels beneath that largely Miarges are in Egypt and has not be surprised to hear one
through Bonn in a demonstra- desert and sparsely populat- obtained no pertinent infor- of these days that the United
tion for the release of Ru- ed region, Saudi Arabia mation to corroborate reports States has sold Phantom
dolph Hess, the one-time No. claims the lion's share — that they have returned to planes to Libya."
De l'Estoile said: "With the
2 Nazi who is serving a life some 160 billion barrels — their original bases in Libya.
Jobert told the French Na- exception of the Cherbourg
sentence for war crimes at followed by Kuwait (78 bil-
Spandau prison in West Ber- lion) and Iran (55 billion). tional Assembly that the boats, no French military
Libya, the westernmost of French government has been equipment has been turned
lin.
the
major oil producing Arab unable to ascertain that the away from its final destina-
The parade was led by
Wolf Ruediger, Hess' son, states, has relatively smaller Franco-Libyan agreement on tion of all arms it sells
who has been campaigning reserves under its soil. But the sale of the Mirages has abroad."
The newspaper Le Monde
for years for his father's re- so insatiable is the Western been violated.
"We have asked the Cairo reported that the French De-
lease. It was sponsored by appetite for oil that Libya
the "Freedom for Hess" or- has been able to hike its and Tripoli governments for fense Ministry has decided
prices and increase its oil information and both govern- not to change the rate of Mi-
ganization of Stuttgart.
royalties by 120 per cent in ments have denied" that the rage deliveries to Libya but
Ruediger said at a press the last two years.
planes were based in Egypt, will slow down deliveries of
conference that he was ap-
The immense power and Jobert said in reply to ques- spare parts 'and' equipment.
pealing to Chancellor Willy diplomatic leverage accruing tions.
Delivery of the 110 jets or-
Brandt to raise the question to the Arab oil rulers is, self-
He remarked that "it is ob- dered by Libya will be com-
of Hess' release again with .evident. How they will use vious that the planes• are not pleted by the fall of 1974, as
Soviet Communist Party Sec- it — their potential for mis- meant to remain on the scheduled.
retary Leonid Brezhnev when chief—can only be surmised ground or to fly around a sin-
The Libyans are not havire
they meet here later this at this stage.
gle base." That remark was much luck learning to use
month.
This is a cause of growing viewed as an admission that planes. Their pilots have
The United States, Britain concern, if not alarm, on the the Mirages had been on a iously damaged at least three
and France reportedly favor part of American Jewish "courtesy visit" to Egypt.
of the Mirages during flight
Hess' immediate release, but leaders and other friends of
Ben Natan refused to say training, Le Monde reported.
the Russians who share with Israel.
what evidence Israel had
The Libyan pilots termin-
them the administration of
The world consumption of proving that the Mirages ating their Mirage flight
Spandau prison, have refused. oil is increasing by 8 per were based in Egypt. "If we training at Wheelus Air Base,
Observers here believe that cent a year. The U.S. con- say that the planes are there, formerly a U. S. base, have
the Russians ,might now agree sumption, now nearly 40 per you can rest assured that we proved "clumsy" to the point
to clemency in view of the -cent of the total, is increas- have conclusive evidence," of causing serious damage to
East-West detente and that ing by 8.7 per cent. Most the ambassador said.
at least three Mirages and to
Hess, who is 79, may be a American oil now comes from
Ben Natan claimed on a one Fouga - Magister jet
free 'man before the end of the Middle East. Should the French television program trainer in recent months, the
the year.
flow diminish for any reason, earlier that it was Israeli in- report said.
Hitler's deputy fuehrer was not only America's vast in- telligence alone that obtained
sentenced to life imprison- •ustrial and economic evidence that the Libyan Mi- Return to Judaism
ment in 1945 at the Nurem- strength but its very comfor- rages were transferred to
Zion is the return of the
berg war crimes trials. The table way of life would be Egypt. He denied that the in-
formation had been supplied Jews to Judaism even before
release of Albert Speer and affected.
their return to the Jewish
In his recent energy policy by American intelligence.
Baldur Von Schirach from
land.—Theodor
Herzl, Open-
The
director
of
the
French
message
to
Congress,
Presi-
Spandau in 1966 left Hess the
only survivor of the Nazis' dent Nixon stressed the prob- arms export department, ing Address at the First
top hierarchy still in prison. lem of supply, not a reduc- Hugues de l'Estoile has ac- Zionist Congress (1897).
Politics of Oil--Threat to Israel
.
PI
Harry S. Truman
54—Friday, May 11, 1973
"At a conference to discuss
the question of recognition of
Israel, attended by both Mar-
shall and (Clark) Clifford,
Marshall protested: 'Mr.
President, this is not a mat-
ter to be determined on the
basis of politics. Unless poli-
tics were involved, Mr. Clif-
fold would not even be at
this conference. This is a
very serious matter of foreign
THE DETROIT JEWISH HEWS
To: The Jewish News
17515 W. 9 Mile Rd.
Suite 865
Southfield, Mich. 48075
WE'VE JUST
From
To:
NAME
Please Allow Two Weeks
French Continue to Deny Mirage
Movement From Libya to Egypt
Marchers Ask
Hess' Freedom