THE NATION: The Light of History

The decade-old secrets of Yalta were out. In a sudden, historic move the U.S. Department of State last week released the text of official documents relating to the ill-fated meeting of Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin in the Crimea. The documents were crammed with illuminating (and often appalling) details of the mood and manner in which the Big Three sliced up the world (see p. 27). In the clamor that followed publication of the papers, most Americans were interested in the answers to two questions: 1) Why did the State Department release them at this time? 2) What effect would their release have on international relations?

The Reason Why. The answer to the first question was no mystery. The State Department has a long-established policy of publishing official documents of historic interest about 15 years after the event. When the Republicans arrived in Washington in 1953, they began to apply pressure to hurry up the release date on the Yalta papers. On Capitol Hill California's Senator William Knowland and New Hampshire's Senator Styles Bridges were particularly insistent. Bridges' Appropriations Committee authorized special funds, and last summer the State Department's historical division began to compile and declassify the documents.

Recently, when the papers were ready for release, the British objected; they feared that publication would embarrass Sir Winston, the only surviving member of the Big Three. Because of this objection, the State Department decided to give the text only to 24 congressional leaders on a confidential basis. After some Democrats (including Georgia's venerable Walter George, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee) refused to accept copies, on the ground that they could not be kept confidential, the State Department decided to release none. But then a copy was "leaked" to the New York Times (see PRESS), and the accompanying furor led to a general release.

At first, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles was not inclined to discuss the publication of the documents. At Washington's National Airport, as Dulles departed for a visit to Canada, a reporter asked why the papers were made public. The usually composed Dulles flushed, stepped away from the microphones and thrust his face close to the reporter's. "I'm not going to stand here at this time to make a statement about Canada," he said, "and have a question like that shot at me." Then he strode furiously to his plane, leaving Canadian Ambassador Arnold Heeney behind. By the time he arrived in Ottawa, the Secretary had recovered his temper. Said he: There seemed to be no reason why the documents shouldn't be published, so they were.

An Ultimate Accounting. Some Democrats, e.g., Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, insisted that the release was purely a Republican political maneuver. As some angry reaction came in from abroad (see FOREIGN NEWS), Democrats charged that publication of the papers would do real harm to the U.S. position in the world. Said Foreign Relations Chairman George: "I regard the publication of these papers at this time as unfortunate. This action will make it difficult to have conferences with those nations with whom conferences must be had if we are to make progress toward world peace and stability."