The Foreign Service Journal, May 2021

58 MAY 2021 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL At stake now was not just Bohlen’s nomination, but also the president’s ability to run his own foreign policy and choose his own appointees. colors, winning high praise for his unwillingness to compromise his principles. But the battle left many scars and was far fromwon. The Foreign Service continued to be ravaged by McLeod’s purges. During his farewell call on President Eisenhower, Bohlen, in his capacity as president of the American Foreign Service Association, described frankly the damage being done by the endless security checks and loyalty investigations, and the pervasive fear it had inspired in the State Department. Eisenhower in effect shrugged, conceding Scott McLeod’s appointment had been a mistake, but he could not be removed “without a great big stink,” Bohlen recalled. Still less did Dulles, always afraid of angering the Republican right, stand up for the State Department or the Foreign Service. Bohlen’s confirma- tion was a setback for McCarthy, but more than a year would pass before the Senate summoned the courage to censure the senator from Wisconsin—demonstrating, not for the last time in American history, how a demagogue can manipulate a backlash from his loyal supporters to intimidate his party into silence. Before his departure, Bohlen met with Dulles, who advised with his habitual tactlessness that it would be “wiser for you and your wife to travel together,” Bohlen recalled. Dumbfounded, he asked why. “Well,” Dulles replied, “you know there were rumors in some of your files about immoral behavior, and it would look better if your wife was with you.” Bohlen, outraged, replied frost- ily that he did not intend to change his plans. n