The Foreign Service Journal, February 2011

committee. The Secretary’s June 12, 1946, request for approval was met with silence. Finally, on June 26, BOB advised both the department and sub- committee that it would oppose the bill in its currrent form. Time was running out. On July 12 the House Foreign Affairs Commit- tee, ignoring BOB, reported the bill out as H.R. 6967. A rule restricting debate followed, and it went to the floor on July 20, 1946. After minor last-minute amendments requested by the departments of Commerce, Labor and Interior, the bill was approved unanimously. The next hurdle — a high one given the legislative clock — was the Senate, which had not yet been di- rectly engaged in the process. Sec. Byrnes again intervened. He cabled Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Tom Connally, D-Texas, from Paris, urging him to expedite the process, and phoned other committee members to urge action. Connally quickly convened the committee in ex- ecutive session, and it reported the bill out as S. 2451. At this point the only chance of passing the act lay in obtaining the Senate’s unanimous consent on July 29, the last business day before ad- journment prior to the midterm elec- tions. But when the clerk reading the consent calendar came to S. 2451, Senator Chapman Revercomb, R-W. Va., objected due to the lack of debate on the bill. Senators Connally, War- ren Austin, R-Vt., William Fulbright, D-Ark., and Robert Taft, R-Ohio, all intervened, urging him to withdraw his objection, but to no avail. S. 2451 was dead. Or so it seemed. Chapin and his deputy, Julian Har- rington, were crushed. But as they walked away from Capitol Hill, a de- partment liaison officer told them there was still hope. Returning to the Senate just as the clerk finished read- ing the calendar, they saw Senator Arthur Vandenberg, R-Ohio, rise and, speaking for Revercomb, withdraw the objection. The Foreign Service Act then passed unanimously. The President Disposes Although Chapin and associates thought a veto unlikely, there was still uncertainty regarding the legislation’s enactment. The White House re- ceived the bill on Aug. 3, 1946, and it had to be signed by President Harry Truman within 10 working days to be- come law. Although the BOB staff was smart- ing from State’s perceived duplicity (its initial draft identified four major ob- jections), the office nonetheless rec- ommended that the president sign the bill and instruct the Secretary to seek remedial legislation in the next session to overcome the four problematic pro- visions. Newly installed Budget Director James E. Webb had other ideas, how- ever. Coming to BOB from a senior post at Treasury, he believed that the bureau’s position had eroded during Pres. Truman’s tenure, and wished to reverse that situation. He leaned to- ward a veto and rejected the draft memo. In addition to its general reserva- tions about the level of detail con- tained in the act, BOB found several major mandates objectionable because they statutorily restricted the author- ity of the president and Secretary of State to manage foreign policy — a legislative intrusion on executive pow- ers. These provisions were: the crite- ria regarding the Foreign Service director general position; creation of the Board of the Foreign Service; es- tablishment of the Board of Examin- ers; and exemption of its director from Civil Service legislation. Ultimately, BOB took a somewhat schizophrenic position. Its Aug. 7 memorandum detailed its objections and cited the department’s perceived lack of good faith, but concluded that BOB felt “obliged to recommend ap- proval.” The principal factor in this anom- alous posture was an unstated fear that a veto would undermine Sec. Byrnes, who was then engaged in postwar treaty negotiations with the Allied powers and the so-called “Axis satel- lite” nations. But Pres. Truman did not seem to share this concern. After reading the BOB memorandum and accompanying file, he forwarded both to his special counsel for an opinion, together with a handwritten note say- ing he was inclined to veto the bill. When news of this reached the de- partment the afternoon of Aug. 9, 1946, a Friday, it galvanized Assistant Secretary Russell and Chapin. Russell immediately dictated a memorandum to Webb and, as it was being prepared, went to the White House for a per- sonal meeting with him. Russell accused Webb of sabotag- ing the legislation; in the acrimonious exchange that followed, Webb refused to withdraw or modify the BOB posi- tion. The following day Russell sent a further memo to the special counsel, refuting in detail the assertions in BOB’s memorandum to the president. But Russell wasn’t done. He ca- bled Sec. Byrnes, still in Paris, outlin- ing the situation and urging that he intervene directly with Pres. Truman. Byrnes responded immediately and effectively, basing his appeal on the 52 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 1 Selden Chapin went on to a distinguished career, serving as chief of mission in five countries.