Here - Nixon Tapes

Graham in the pages of. Christianity against communism and for a new to warrant a orivate channel ofand Cnsrs; the latter r€ciprocated democratic order" in South Vietnam. communication: Taylor bypassed thein Christianity Today, The National FMSCO's operatives would slip into State Department and reported toAssociation of Evangelicals (NAE) the country and, Lowry declared, the president directly; his dispatchesthoutht the National Council organize "native Buddhists, Cao relating consultations with, amongof Churches (NCC) was soft on Daiists, Catholics, and other men and others, Pope Pius XII, the PapalCommunism; the NCC charged the women of conviction" in support of Nuncio in Paris, the Lutheran BishopNAE with isolationism and war- the Diem government. Apparently, of Berlin, and the Archbishop ofmongering. Some Protestants felt Vice President Richard Nixon was Canterbury were sent in s€cretthat true Christianshould eschew quite taken with this scheme; he code. Truman believed, as he putpoliticalinvolvementandplace lobbiedupper-echelonadministration it, that "[t]he cause of Communismtheir trust in God alone; others figures to endorse it, assuring them of versus Christianity and Democracyconsidered this "a quietistic betrayal his "high regard for and considerable transcends minor differences inof the gospel' social imperatives" confidence in Dr. Lowry." Since other Christian creeds," and he sought to(47). While Inboden concurs with documents relating to Lowry's plan build an anticommunist coalition onstandard interpretations of the late have yet to be declassified, we do values shared among all Christians,1940s and 1950s as a time of religious not know if it was implemented, but regardless of denomination,enthusiasm in the United Statet he Inboden is surely right to asserthat Europe and America (121). Indeed,demonstrates that this enthusiasm it "provides a revealing window Truman once entertained thefound expressioninto FRASCOs possibility of "sendIing Taylorlin different ways,cooperation to see the top Buddhist and theespecially amons Methodologically, traditional witir the"churchmen" -Grand Lama of Tbet" if it woulddiPlomatic historians are fond of administration, help "mobilize the people wholike Niebuhr and reminding culture vultures like Nixon's very believe in a moral world againstheGraham. me that while n'e may portray the early interest in Bolshevik materialists" (139-140).Religion ant! existence of widesPrcad attitudes Vietnam, and the For five years, Taylor engaged inAneri-can Foreign about race, gender, or religion, ideological uses what Inboden calls "spiritual shuttlePolicy alsowe cannot connecthose attihrdes of religion against diplomacy," navigating a Europeanbene-fits from definitively to deeds. tn the end, communism" "religious landscape rife withInboden's mininq our approach requires a leap of (28&281). I wish almost 2,000 years of ecclesiastical-of dynamite faith to account for the origin of these papers had controversy" while fending off theprimary sources, the behavior we are endeavoring been ivjilable brickbats of American Protestantslome recently to explain. when I was who considered Catholicism anddeclassided, theresearching my Communism "equally repressive,rest overlooked forfirst book, and equally threatening and thereforedecades until Inboden blew the dust I intend to cite them the next time equaf y reprehensible" (124, 729, 128).off them. For selfish reasont I was a colleague minimizes religion's His initiatives failed, and Trumandelighted to learn that the Operations importance in shaping American terminated the campaign in late 1951.Coordinating Board (OCB), an diplomacy.Still, the president had articulated anagency set up by Eisenhower to I will moreoverefer thatobiective that his successor wouldcoordinate departmental execution of colleague to lnboden's account of achieve, not so much by appealingnational security policies, considered the adventures of Myron Taylor, to European and American clerics assponsoring a covert mission to the "quixotic, controversial, and by going over their heads and usingVietnam in 1954 to, in the board's elusive figure" who gave up his the "white House pulpif' to promotewords, "use the religious factor to job as chief executive of the United a doctrinally inclusive faith aroundintensify local anti-communism." States Steel Corporation to serve first which all opponents of CommunismThe mission was conceived bv as coordinator of American relief could rally.an Episcopalian minister named efforts in war-torn ltaly and then as The most significant primaryCharles Wesley Lowry whoPresident Harry Truman's "chosen source lnboden draws uDon isenioyed a friendship with President agent" in a "grandiose, secretive Senator H. Alexander Smith'sEisenhower's pastor, the Reverend plan. . . to unite the leaders of the daily iournal, in which the senatorEdward Elson, and who, together various factions of Christendom recorded, in copious detail, his searchwith Elson, established thein a pan-religious alliance" (119, for divine counsel on matters routineFoundation for Religious Action in 122). Taylor has heretofore been and world-shaking. This is the kindthe Social and Civil Order (FRASCO) almost invisible to historians of of archival bonanza scholars dreamafter Eisenhower assumed office. the Truman administration. David of, and it comes closer to solvingLowry volunteered the services McCullough does not mention the ubiquitous causeand-effectof several FRASCO members, one him in his cinderblock-sized problem than any document I havea Catholic priest, for a "spiritual biography.T Yet Truman thought encountered. Methodologically,offensive movement directed Taylor's mission important enough traditional diplomatic historians arePassrytt Aprilzo@Page 25