President Truman's relief of General Douglas MacArthur purposes is [just temporarily] allied with Soviet Russia." If MacArthur's thesis was accepted, then it followed that expanding the war with China would not provoke a conflict with the Soviet Union. The Joint Chiefs emphatically disagreed, although this contradicted their position that it was Europe and not Asia that was the prime concern of the Soviet Union. Even among Republicans, there was little support for MacArthur's position. On 5 April, Martin read the text of a letter he had received from MacArthur, dated 20 March, criticizing the Truman administration's priorities on the floor of the House. In it, MacArthur had
Secretary-General to the President as president ditched all of McDunphy's rules and in effect started from scratch. Commentators credited the ditching of McDunphy's rules as a key factor in the rebirth of the office and in its subsequent popularity. Though technically the Secretary General to the President is attached to the Department of the Taoiseach in practice he or she is treated as being a full department head in his or her own right. McDunphy however accused the Secretary to the Government and Secretary to the Taoiseach, Maurice Moynihan of plotting to undermine him and take over control of the Office of the President,