The Press: Dear Diary

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Since James V. Forrestal plunged to his death 18 months ago, no columnist worth his salt has failed to speculate on the contents of the late Defense Secretary's "secret diaries." There were even hints that the Cabinet member's private papers, which he had turned over to the White House just before his death, were so full of political dynamite that they were being suppressed. Actually, they had been handed over to Forrestal's executors and put up for sale. Last week, the New York Herald Tribune Syndicate announced that it had bought the papers for an undisclosed price and would syndicate them next spring. Except where military security prevents, the Trib expects to print them pretty much "as is." Viking Press will also publish them in a book.

The 2,800 pages of notes dictated by Forrestal are being edited by his wartime assistant, Eugene S. Duffield, now assistant publisher of the Cincinnati Enquirer, and Walter Millis, Herald Tribune editorial writer and author (The Road to War). As for the diaries' contents, the Trib threw out a few clues: "Forrestal's 1945 advice to Truman to stop Russia's unilateral actions . . . Forrestal asks, Truman refuses, custody of completed A-bombs . . . Truman-Forrestal conversations re MacArthur versus Eisenhower."