Harry Gideonse in England-Oh de GauIte and U.S.Foreign Policy
GIDEONSE, HARRY D.
Harry Gideonse in England-Oh de GauIte and U.S.Foreign Policy A Frirst-Hand Analysis of French Politics in Exile By HARRY D. GIDEONSE __PraMimt ef Brook y* Cotiege vho has just returned from e...
...The ruthlessly totalitarian techniques of the Ganllist machine scare Frenchmen who do not accept him as' their "chief" into silence and guarded discretion, in -order to avoid trouble for themselves and their families in France...
...Lippmann pins such vain hopes...
...DeGsulle's significance is political—and as a political phenomenon his repatation is almost entirely fictitious...
...When he replied with the irrelevant comment that it could not be denied that Giraud was surrounded by Cagoulards, he had to admit that he didn't even know the"difference between (Georges) Bonnet of Munich and Vichy fame, and (Jean) Monnet...
...No foreign policy along Machiavellian lines can give the peoples of the world peace sad what mast go with it: reasonable satisfaction of material needs...
...Lippmann does not supply...
...From time to, time small nations might have ideas of their own, and such ideas would be disposed of, one way or the other, by the Grand Alliance...
...The termination ef World War I saw such an immediate clashing of post-war aims...
...I shall not soon forget the face of an American journalist in London who had swallowed the fairy tales about our "DarlanVsphy Stato Department" hook, line and sinker, including the notion that General Giraud shared the enti-assnitfc views of Vichy, when I pointed to the simple fact that the French Committee of National Liberation had two Jewish members, and that they were both appointees of Giraud < Rend Mayer, in charge of Communications, and Jules Abedie, charged with Justice, Education and Health...
...When a direct question was asked about the conflict between his public and his private views, the simple and disarming answer was: "Cetait le prix de man billet" (It was the price of my ticket to England...
...J,***nn- places far too much reliance on '•reifn policy as s safeguard against dis?***&», He reminds me vary saaeh of sen- ¦ tettW>ss moralists who assert that if a perlaw-abiding and practices the «ohton ""••mvewtil' safely avoid all trouble...
...DeGaulle and his subsequent alliance with communist aleassats have given him control of moat of the tjmnjiin tonal elements in French poJMea,ssgtofSe^aase produced fear and deftantt aafcongit janmat...
...i? Now that Churchill has obviously changed his views of DeGaulle, it may benonw ywa^Me to develop s "weaning policy" by allowing Other Frenchmen—and specifically, able civilian*—to produce a cohesion in policies and gtodfKafllhii that was sadly lacking six months ago end to now developing in a promising fashion...
...Lippmann gets a tmi deal of satisfaction from empty formulas...
...Having deterIttoed the foreign commitments, which are 'ftsfly necessary to his people, he will tajjer rest until he has mustered the force 'Jeeever them...
...are not allowed to escape by means of the underground-—which is controlled by Gaullists even today—unless they premise loyalty to DeGsulle's leadership in an oath that has all the earmarks of fascist ritual...
...Lippmann's, or lack of thinking, that tot brought the world to its present pass...
...Then, somehow, although he does net say how or why, it evaporated as Japan and Germany stepped on to the world stage and the United States embarked on a directionless foreign policy that has contributed to keeping the world in hot water ever since...
...Lippmann does take into hto view the airplane but he mentions it only lightly...
...If its expenditures are fsfely within its assured means, a family ii - solvent when it is poor, or is well-to-do, *rts rich...
...From Monrce's to Wilson's time there was a gradual rapprochement between the two nations, broken at times by different needs and aims...
...Lippmann here quite obviously TP* into the error of estimating foreign policy _*^*iSfle...
...askig an intellectual, and very much of an itory-tpwer intellectual, Mr...
...democratic elements as well as an ato»ea>hs>s of internecine warfare among Ida own adherents...
...When those paths Anally crossed—and it was Spain whose shadow first fell across the path of American expansionism—the result Waa war...
...Meanwhile, Japan, enjoying the fruit* of her participation in World War I , prepared to work the other aide ef the street in World War I I . Germany thirsted for revenge, .and various of the smaller stares that had been dismembered, Bulgaria snd Hungary, nursed their .bitterness...
...incidentally, true that there are former Cagoulards in Giraud's circles, but it is just as true that such elements occur amongst the most militant Gaulhsti—the gentleman who now passes under the name of "Colonel Passy" and who ia the head of De Gaulle's secret police is a notorious member of the group...
...Indeed, the commitment is even greater, 'for "In the new age of air power it extends beyond the coast line to the lands where there are airdromes from which planes can take off...
...AFTER lecturing for 101 pages on the in*" adequacy of American foreign policy in violation to its popularly unsuspected commitments, Mr...
...What is the commitment that emerged from the Spanish-American' War...
...she supported According to Mr...
...Lippmann's argument to show an alliance with England prior to 1900, when the United States enjoyed peace, but to show no alliance after 1900, when the' United States became involved in two tremendous wars...
...Toward the end of his book Mr...
...And so the world headed down the road to the present war...
...Following her rigid formula, time tested and true, England gradually oriented herself against the nation she mistakenly conceived to be the stronger, France, and gave covert support to German rearmament in the hope that it would be directed only against Russia...
...The only difficulty with this formula is that it does not hold water...
...Lippmann notes, left the United States with vast and distant commitments that called for a new note in American foreign policy...
...There is no evidence whatever that he realizes fully the meaning of modern technology grafted on to an old and only slowly evolving social system with its thoroughly primitive wsys of thought...
...Britain, for one fhing...
...But that this understanding prevailed throughout the nineteenth century, and gave peace to the United States, is contrary to the facts...
...To fight against it, ami any combination of nations, would be sssat ¦!> f & j • • DEFORE Mr...
...the restraint and wisdom af the America* State Department...
...We come now to the proposed alliance on which Mr...
...Russia and the United States— vfs enforce Peace on the rest of the world...
...The only variation is that the spheres of overlapping influence are to be managed by a different set of nations...
...The area of American defensive commitment is not quite 40 per cent of the land surface of the earth...
...The same principle holds true of .rations...
...Inside occupied Franee Gaullism is identified with complete cooperation with England and America, outside Franee it ds quite apparent that DeGaulle is explicitly ante-English and an ti-American...
...The winning of the war with Spain, as Mr...
...The paths of other nations and Of the United States, confining its energies to this continent, simply did not cross to any vital degree...
...The constant preoccupation of the true [sic!] statesman is to achieve and maintain this balance...
...Lippmann...
...factor insuring national safety...
...As soon as the rapprochement became firm, the United States became involved in global war for global stakes...
...The situation ia well characterized by the story of a Freneh political leader who was widely quoted in the American press on the unanimously Gaul list attitude of occupied France, and whose personal conversation did net at all bear out the newspaper quotations...
...Tht Influence of Mr...
...Lippmann...
...former deputy secretary-general of the League of Nations, and a close adviser of General Giraud as well as of General De Gaulle (appointed to the French Committee as one of Giraud's members...
...To speak Wuntly to the world and to France on the reel aa over against the supposed qualities of General DeGaulle might have a singularly disruptive influence on our snilitory as well as polities...
...As Mr...
...situation te view of the fact that military action to Franee is probably very near and that the synthetic Gauliism ef many Frenchmen is largely the fruit of the early British—and thoroughly understandable— support of the General...
...With the help of British facilities and British money DeGaulle established himself in French opinion as the spokesman for all Frenchmen who see the English and American war effort as designate liberate France...
...Implication here is that if the statesman 2j**es in sound bookkeeping, if he plays an game of diplomatic chess, his country 19 W Safe...
...The rightist elements think thad.,fjb»- vfe know how to handle the conuuunists if «e General has the controls to his bands, and the communists seem te feel that the General wfll be a pushover for their well-oiled and dmeiplinsd shocktroops once the un-Freneh Slid sawtatoWnl manner of the gentleman becomes obvious to Frenchmen who now think of him aa a symbol of political values that are the exact opposite of those eherished by the real General-as over against his synthetic radio personality...
...It has also quite deliberately pursued a policy designed to avoid the possibility that any one else should try to mortgage the future of France in these respects...
...Lippmann wants...
...UNDER the circumstances sores fan...
...vigorously combed dttt of Its politicaJ and social life the entire collaborationist crew that has steered its national afclp of state into the shoals and onto the rocks of Vkhy-km since the breakdown invJJM© Cy, „„_ ...._____________j ...___ a - a ov mucn we can taxe.aa common ground ui England and in the United Stated, aa wall as among most of the followers of Generals De • Gaulle and GirawL Oar State Department has never indicated a desire to dictate'the form of French political institutions, or...
...For nations, as for famjgte...
...Only the British Navy could enforce it...
...There is more than a hint in bbtory that men* denied what they want by other means, will elect to fight in one way or the other...
...The area of these commitments is very nearly half the surface of the globe, and within this area we insist that no great power may enlarge its existing dominion, that no new great power may establish itself...
...Few have the courage to struggle with s welloiled machine which does not hesitate to use Gestapo techniques of persuasion, although it was ouite apparent to me in London that DeGaulle's supporters are not a majority in' the London French colony, and that most of the Frenchmen of whose democratic and republican values I felt certain because of past experience, were warm supporters of the policy of our own State Department...
...But whether he is conducting the affairs of Germany, which has **d> dynamic ambitions, or the affairs of puitierland which seeks only to hold what « already has, or of the United States, he Jtojt still bring his ends smd means into ¦"•nee...
...It must be a France that has chosen its own leaders and It can be taken for granted that we shall not have such a France antes * it has...
...Lippmann dees not fully apprehend the influence of technology, particularly for evil under the direction of Stone-Age Thinkers such ss we find running governments the world over, he cannet see that in the modern world there is no room for traditional foreign policy at all...
...When they manage to escape to England, they discover with dismay that DeGaulle represents the exact opposite of the values identified with the radio general...
...Harry Gideonse in England-Oh de GauIte and U.S.Foreign Policy A Frirst-Hand Analysis of French Politics in Exile By HARRY D. GIDEONSE __PraMimt ef Brook y* Cotiege vho has just returned from e jfee sssefct' trip t* ?>*jria*dTHE keystone of post-war Europe must be a strong Republican France...
...The United States withdrew entirely...
...A FTER five weeks in London in which I di" cussed these questions with scorns of menofficials, journalists and refugees—I was amazed to read in the New York Herald Tribtfhe m a dispatch dated August 2, 194.1, that American policy is regarded in London diplomatic circles as "an enigma that makes the tamtam diptoNimtj of the Soviet Union appear as simple as a schoolboy primer," and that no American official could be discovered in London who could "make sense of current American policy...
...Lippmann ks» unwarrantably drawn on the terminology if bookkeeping, the author states: "The thesis o| this book is that a foreign 'Psliey consists in bringing into balance, 'With a comfortable surplus of power in rethe nation's commitments and the nation's power...
...What foreign commitments *d Norway have to bring about the German yjgation and what foreign commitments did 'm'm %*« that brought about Anglo-AmerSoccupations ? What kind of foreign policy, j^„eapiudatipn, could have availed these *»s anything...
...Lippmann's first task is to show that the United States, in that period during which it enjoyed freedom from outside attack, was secure only because it was party to an alliance...
...Lippmann, the new note appeared in the form of drawing closer to England...
...And, contrary to Mr...
...Current attacks on the State Department all reveal the same mobilisation of fsilo., traveler resources, but I am convinced that a historian writing the cool and detached final judgment on this period, win agree with the verdict that Roosevelt was wise in minimising actual starfare between French and »njgto toperirss, troops, that he was right in his view shed vary many Frenchmen were anu-collaborationist (that is, anti-PetahvLaval) tort eqnalry opposed to political adventures with floflsraatosn^tortonism, and that the policy of wearuag occupied France from an erroneous view imposed by the accidents of military and psychological warfare by a procedure which g i siluaTIJ .ibsOlsslafl apia mittee rule and control, Was not orfly a genuinely democratic achievement hut a morally xeurageous course in view of the greater' pail Heal ease of an alternative policy which might have sacrificed the keystone for European reconstruction, that is to say, the existence of s free and republican France...
...The United States was free of external attack hi the nineteenth century because other nations were too busy elsewhere with other problems...
...It is...
...While this Alliance could not bring about Perpetual Peace (for nothing can do that), it would insure * fairly long period of Tranquillity...
...This should net lead us into a Lippmannesques train of reasoning to the effect that it has been alliance with England that has brought as to war on two occasions...
...Lippmann would confront such hotheads f*» his Grand Alliance...
...It is Mr...
...u> lasinetsuet m ReThe Trap of Power Politics and the Myth of the Four-Powers Bloc By FERDINAND LUNDBERO WHEN this Wan ends in victory for the United "Nations there should be created a FourPower Alliance of the "arsenal states"—China, Great Britain...
...What the general reader is apt to overlook a that it has been thinking of the same order s* Mr...
...The success of communist phrase monger...
...Rather does the reverse appear to be the fact...
...At present there is considerable doubt-Whether DeGaulle has really placed his control of propaganda or of the underground under general committee supervision, and I was iatorsnlad to hear London stories—from responsible, sources —that tha French banknotes which are now being used to finance the UBste/giuepssV istoT'piinted in North Africa but that their issue for these purposes was not a matter of smmmittss policy...
...Law-abiding citizens who carefully mind their own business snd never step on snyone's toes are continually being slugged by rascals...
...I can only say that I had no difficulty to discovering American officials who ware wellinformed, quite awsee of all the difficult angles of their delicate assignment, and that my outstanding memory of the trip was the cestonent of a distinguished Fi tiashmsa stoh to anpsiience earned ia the service of Republican PYane* —that he "thanked Providence every aW Jar...
...In view of these facta, which should be obvious to any careful reader of the press, die eventual publication of an American white book on North Africa and France, will probably have an almost revolutionary novelty to fellow citixens who stove allowed propaganda to dominate their thinking...
...Ail I am trying to show here is that Mr...
...Lippmann, the BritishAmerican alliance continued until circa 1900...
...Lippmann states it adequately, as follows: "We are committed to-defend at -the risk of war the lands and - the waters around them extending from Alaska to the Philippines and Australia, from Greenland to Brazil to Patagonia...
...f'fc t have no special contacts with thcvs»en who are charged with the day-to-day adashs^aUan of our foreign policy, but I would venture the following explanation of their position, as sufotantially in sscerdancs with my osm 'obeervstidns: There is at present no 81M|| in the group of Frenchmen outside of occupied France No one can say what Franee will support, once it has a chance to hear free argument and debate...
...To be concluded next week...
...T SHALL not discuss General DeGaulle as a military figure, first of all because I lack the eseentisl technical qualifications for a comparison with* Giraud or Catroux, and secondarily because it is quite clear that military matters are in Giraud's hands...
...The years since 1900, however, offer more by way of supporting the notion that an alliance has existed between England and the United States than do the last three quarters of the nineteenth century...
...Russia pursued a policy of isolation and snuggling up to pre-Hitler Germany, while Italy, chested out of rewards for her part in the war, drew close to Austria and Hungary...
...IT is hard to get a correct picture of the French * situation but it is not impossible...
...But it is necessary-to Mr...
...the, kvel may vary at which a solvent •¦tote-to struck...
...There it, indeed, nothing essentially different about Jfe Lippmann's prescription from Nazi Geopftitik...
...At any rate, line would be assured, and apparently peace, shy find of peace, is all that Mr...
...Such is the anarchronistic, thoroughly regresiit« prescription' of Walter Lippmann for the erderuig of the post-war world in his recently islisitli 1 V. S. Foreign PoKeg: Shield of the RigaUie [Little Brown and Company, $1.50, 177 pages], born evidently out of extreme fright St the spectacle of mechanized armies pulveriztor wealth and lives on an unprecedented scale...
...The general's builftip reputation inside Franee is largely due to a radio monopoly over the British Broadcasting Company during the two years following the breakdown in 1940...
...fig...
...A WARE of the profound popular suspicion of *" alliances in the United States, Mr...
...Wf **f «*k: what excessive foreign commitments China have...
...As an example ef such an empty formula, for u» underlying logic of which Mr...
...France, vitally injured by the war waged on her territory, wanted absolute security, snd, after failing to get guarantees from England and the United States, she set about creating a system of alliances over Europe with the newly-created states...
...The statesman of a strong country •tap balance its commitments at a high wvel or at a low...
...to the construction of a wholly synthetic issue which for a, while threatened ftueto nnwriran relations as well as the future af Fupnee, is oae of the great political lessons of ttflp polities...
...The situation is complicated even further by the fact that individual Trenchmer...
...Why have the great states been unable to form a workable foreign policy that would avoid the disaster in which many of them, such aa Russia, France, Germany and Japan, art deeply engulfed, and in which others, such as England and the United States, are only somewhat less thoroughly engulfed ? Has it not been because of the inability of official thought, based on ancient precepts, to keep pace with the world of the radio, airplane, tank and submarine...
...If he does not, he will follow a S«se that leads to disaster...
...For the United States went to war at England's side in 1917 snd in 1941, and became involved in war both times partly because, recognizing the value of England to American security, it - had elected to give England important support with gocds and materials...
...That there was an informal understanding achieved between the British and American governments at the time of the Monroe declartion is, it is true, a little known —- 'fact...
...Lippmann's Four-Power Bkx on smaller nations wonld be, he assures as, wholly .benign...
...It is giving Frmiahaasii ¦¦steer chance," be summarised...
...There is room here for some penetrating inquiry, which Mr...
...Without this alliance the Monroe Doctrine, he argues, would have had no force...
...Separate sovereignties can come together for a term for e limited task, such as winning a war, but they cannot hold together when a multitude of other aims come into conflict...
...Lippmann is apparently unable to see that separate sovereignties imply divergent interests...
...One and all they have misjudged the forces with them and the forces against them, and until they construct an order of power which fits the realities of power, they must continue the cycle of disaster...
...The American people, however, did not understand what these commitments were...
...to impose any personalities on France...
...A minority that understood flatly opposed them, which is the real reason why American foreign policy has been the subject of, hot debate ever since 1900...
...We cannot, however, be certain that the nut of humanity is as enamored of peace as Mr...
...The palpable absurdity of such a "commitment" never seems to occur to Mr...
...Lippmann's notion that from the time of the promulgaticn of the Monroe Doctrine to the end of the nineteenth century, the United " States had an informal alliance with Great Britain...
...It can, however, be awtisspatod that able civilian elements on the French Committee will gradually emerge as the detntaant civilian core of the new nucleus of tirgsntoad French military and political effort...
...j It is, of course, a condition for the ¦ucnaas ff such a "weaning policy," that it should no* be officially described as such, and if the General can himself be educated politically by the very process of sharing politseai reepeiuinssslttpj.wtth other Frenchmen, such success might appear te be a victory for DeGaulle (because it would make the real General conform with the Synthetic radio General) but it would fundamentally represent conclusive proof of tint wisdom of the American policy, which is, of eeurse, a Roosevelt policy and not a "State Department" policy...
...came close to recognizing the Confederacy...
...Lippmann discloses his thor™;aughly pedestrian and inadequate recomnendation—inadequate because it stands in no ^*ffc*f workable relation to the machine-created Jjales loose in the world today—he indulges in a good deal of pretentious intellectual exerdse that is bound to impress the uninstructed...
...To England this meant only one thing: French hegemony on the Continent...
...Lippmann on page 102 breaks down and discloses that "During this period (19001940) none of the great states has been able to form a workable foreign policy...
...The fact of alliance or non-alliance had nothing whatever to do with (1) the peaee of the nineteenth century and (2) the wars of the twentieth...
...The early rightist position of Genera...
...af recognition for the French Committee may be anticipated after the receipt of suitable guaranties of eemmittse responsibility...
Vol. 26 • August 1943 • No. 34
