After five and a half months in Europe, W. Averell Harriman, U.S. ambassador-at-large to the Marshall Plan nations, came home last week on a visit. Before reporting to President Truman, who was still in Key West, Harriman addressed the American Federation of Labor convention in Cincinnati.
There, after A.F.L. President Bill Green boomed him for Secretary of State, Harriman reported what he thought was the effect of the U.S. election on Europe:
"I was in Europe at the time of the election and I can tell you that, as a result, a new feeling of confidence in the United States swept across Europe....