Remarks at a Meeting With the American Society of Newspaper Editors

Well, this looks just like a press conference! Remember last year? We had a meeting over in the East Room. I had hoped that today would be a bright and sunny one, for we were expecting to have it out here in the garden. Due to that fact, Mrs. Truman arranged to see about as many women as there are men here this afternoon. She is having two big teas over in the East Room, so we had to stay put. But it's so raw outside, I thought we would try to get everybody in here. A record for press conferences, I think, is about 314, and I think there's about that number here now.

Just not long ago I passed the hundredth press conference, and one of the lady reporters there--just about as scarce as the lady editors in here today--asked me what I thought of the press and my treatment. I was glad to tell her that I thought the press had been extremely kind to me, and that the young men who represent you gentlemen here had done a good job of reporting, in that they had conveyed the facts as nearly and as truthfully as they could be conveyed under the circumstances, and that I was exceedingly happy that this country had a press that could say and do what it pleased under the law.

And it is a situation that does not prevail in very many countries. I don't know of any country where the head of a state is willing to submit himself to a gang of gentlemen--[laughter]--who ask him any sort of a question they please. I always try, so far as I am capable, to give a truthful answer, and as nearly as I can to state the facts.

Sometimes, due to things that are pending, it isn't possible to answer all the questions, and therefore the answer is a stilted one, it is "no comment." I don't have to use that very often, but whenever it is necessary, I do use it.

And then, sometimes, in some instances there are questions that are asked with the idea of political answers, which it hasn't been my policy to answer either. The political matters have to speak for themselves in actions, and they do, I think, most of the time.

But I am appreciative of the press this United States has, and of its present management. I think they have been as fair in stating the facts as it is possible for them to be. As I have said time and again here to the young men who represent you here in the White House, that I didn't care much what was said on the editorial page if I got the facts on the front page! And that has been the case. And that has been particularly true of this announcement of the foreign policy with regard to Greece and Turkey. I think the press has given the country a completely clear and fair statement of that situation, and the necessity for it.

I might say a word or two to you, off the record if I may, as to the development of that situation.

There has been a great deal of speculation as to the why and the wherefore, and how it came about--to quote one paper that I saw, "so suddenly." It didn't come about so suddenly.

Back about the 25th of April, if I remember correctly, in 1945, the Foreign Minister of Russia stopped by to make a courtesy call on me on his way to San Francisco, and he stated categorically what he expected to get out of San Francisco. And I told him, categorically, what he was going to get. And he made the statement when he went out of here that he had never been talked to in that manner by anybody before in his life. It did him good.

And I finally, if you remember, had to send Harry Hopkins to Moscow to get the final agreement on the Charter for the United Nations in a manner in which it would be fair to the whole world.

Then I had a trip to Potsdam a few months later, in July--if I remember correctly--and I had some very interesting experiences at that meeting of the so-called Big Three. Then Mr. Byrnes went to Paris--to Moscow and then to Paris, and Mr. Byrnes took along with him on that trip the Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who had been assigned to be present at those negotiations--the Chairman, and the ranking members of the then minority.

And another thing I want to say to you gentlemen is that the fact that we have a bipartisan foreign policy is due to the fact that Cordell Hull, way back in the early part of his administration, began calling in the members of the Foreign Relations Committees of the House and the Senate and explaining to them the things that were before the country in foreign affairs; and he set out to them what the situation actually is.

That policy has been followed straight through ever since. And it is a very, very fine thing that it has, because it makes no difference how much we quarrel among ourselves here at home--that is a part of the game. Whenever a President is in office everybody has a right to throw mudballs at him if they want to, but if he can't dodge them it's too bad--[laughter]--but in the foreign policy it is necessary that this country present a solid front to the world on the policy which we want to pursue. The fact that these gentlemen had been to all these conferences gave them a viewpoint as to what we have to contend with in our negotiations.

It has been a most difficult 2 years in arriving at a solution of the problems with which the world is faced. I am sure that we are going to arrive at a proper solution of those problems, and we are going to live to see a long era of peace. I believe that as sincerely as I am standing here.

But the approach in our dealing--dealings with the Russian Government--I am being very frank with you--must be an approach that is right from our viewpoint, and we have got to stand for what we believe is right. And eventually they will come around and agree to it. They have, up to date. We tried going along with them as far as we possibly could, trying to please them. There is no way to please them. They deal from day to day, and what's done yesterday has no bearing on what's done today or tomorrow. We have to make up our mind what our policy is.

And after Mr. Byrnes came back from Moscow, we had a long conference with Mr. Byrnes and the members of the delegations who were with him. And we have made up our minds that we wanted only what is right. I stated frankly and candidly in Berlin, at the raising of the American flag over Berlin, that we had no desire for territory, we were not asking reparations, we only wanted peace, and a peace that would be continuing. We hoped that by getting a continuing peace and good will in the world, that our whole machine--which had been built as a result of the war and which had shown us what we could do--would, by that means, be a continuing--continuing in the process of operations so that our country could continue to be prosperous legally and helpfully to its neighbors. That is the only ambition or ideal that the country has had. We want world peace--a just peace for all concerned; and we want to see our borne fires kept burning so we can meet the obligations created by this tremendous expenditure for war. And that is all we have in view.

Well, this situation continued in Paris and in the other conferences that we have had. And it has been a most difficult situation to meet. And finally, when Great Britain came to the point where she could no longer maintain the situation in Greece and Turkey, I called in the Foreign Relations Committees of the House and the Senate, and the leaders of both parties in the House and the Senate, and laid the facts before them.

And they agreed with me that we had reached a point where we had to state our position, and to meet the situation straight on--head on.

And that is how the situation developed. It wasn't a sudden proposition that happened in 5 minutes. It had been developing ever since the Germans surrendered. And it finally got to the point where we had to state our case to the world.

I tried to state it as clearly and fairly as I could to the Congress, and I say that you gentlemen presented the matter and the facts to the country in a manner which the country understood.

And I think the country is behind our foreign policy. And we must continue that bipartisan foreign policy for the welfare of ourselves and the welfare of the world, because our own welfare is mixed up in the welfare of the world as a whole. We no longer have all the distances, and the oceans, and things of that sort to guard us. I just had a gentleman in here this morning who had been around the world, I think it was in 78 hours elapsed time. I think the actual flying time was nearer a little over 68 hours.¹ Now Jules Verne was considered a very great liar when he said he could go round the world in 80 days. I think the time is coming when we will probably go round the world in 24 hours. And we have got to be prepared to meet that situation.

And you gentlemen can help us prepare to meet that situation. We must catch up morally and internationally with the machine age. We must catch up with it, and we must catch up with it in such a way as to create peace in the world, or it will destroy us and everybody else. And that we don't dare to contemplate.

Now I have been exceedingly frank with you gentlemen in stating the situation. I thought you were entitled to know what is in the mind of your President so far as foreign policy is concerned, and so far as the policy that has so-called suddenly developed--it hasn't suddenly developed, it has been developing over a period of years, in fact. And it is a policy that I think is for the welfare of this country. And the welfare of this country is wrapped up in the welfare of the whole world. And I--I appreciate highly, I can't tell you how much I do appreciate the fact that you have placed this matter before the country in a manner that they understood.

And I sincerely wish it were possible for me to hold a press conference with you, and answer a lot of questions, but we would be bootlegging on your hired men here. They don't like it! [Laughter]

[At this point Wilbur Forrest, president of the Society, expressed appreciation to the President for the trouble and effort he had taken to meet with them. The President then resumed speaking.]

I am very sorry because of the crowded conditions here, but as I explained to you, I didn't expect the weather to behave the way it did.