The "Great. Design" for the Transition Period
The "Great Design" for the Transition Period ** Alexander kerensky IDEALIZING the postwar world OM unconsciously idealises the war iteelf and eiporta that out of evil good will eosM, aad begin*...
...There is not a drop of realism in this plan, not a whiff of idealism, not s hint of creative statesmanship...
...They do not want • mirage of collective security which is neither collective nor secure...
...Now we approach the epilogue of this Second War...
...Hundreds of millions of our suffering contemporaries-need n piece of bread—the restoration aa soon as possible of the most elementary conditions of decent life...
...The Central problem of collective security is not to provide for common defease when enough nstions arc willing to cooperate, bat te provide for cases ia which not enough of them will cooperate...
...It is a mistake to think that the Atlantic Charter includes the all democratic principles...
...Roosevelt's press conference of Msy 30, hs pointed out that the old League of Nations was a 1918 model, while this new League was a 1944 model, adding that the 1944 model reflect in some waya a more cynical outlook developed by some people aa a result of their more mature experience...
...The idea of the expediency of a tranaition period, tht refusal te convoke prematurely the decisive Peace Conference in the immediate post-victory atmosphere, acknowledgment that during the transition period all international rules and laws must be loose...
...It always destroys auaterial aad spiritual values...
...Now I don't want to express my opinion about Versailles, I only remind yon of a well-known snd indisputable fact: Versailles failed...
...Million* of Americans do not want a new Holy Alliance, by whatever name it may be called...
...Th* Teheran Declaration, Um latest statement ef Prima Minister Churchill, State Secretary Hull av4 Presideat Roosevelt about th* international organisation aa the day after the victory show that the "Great Design" of President Roosevelt is la reality the mutual plan of all the future guardians of the world...
...Th* first world war ¦brought a re-arrangement of th* balance of power in Europe and in the Pacific...
...This is absolutely Impossible...
...Unfortunately Mr...
...The different repreaentetivea of public opinion in the free democratic countries arc feverishly planning now an ideal international system...
...The democracies needed time to recover from the intoxication of war...
...One need not be-a prophet to predict that the proposed triumvirate of the United States, Britain and Russia, however worthy its objeetivee, will collaptt much sooner...
...I say this, aat because 1 am s pessimist or a pacifist...
...Never does it create the**, War smells not of violets aad roses, hat of hi sod aad horror...
...0 ? I UNDERSTAND that in Washington the architects of this proposal have named it th* Hull Plan...
...but bora use I took part in the first "war to end wars," and bees use I saw haw and in wbst international and psychologicsl conditions the first system of world democratic new order was created...
...Why should the great sovereign states, under this new League, cooperate ia the future any more than they have cooperated ia the past 7 What provision la made in this aaw permanent international organisation if th* sovereign states should fail te cooperate...
...A world dictator is possible...
...The Atlantic Charter was promulgated after the Hitler invasion of Russia when s dictatorship joined the democreeies sgainst the common foe...
...The duty of our generation is quite prosaic...
...The "Great Design" for the Transition Period ** Alexander kerensky IDEALIZING the postwar world OM unconsciously idealises the war iteelf and eiporta that out of evil good will eosM, aad begin* te plan the Third > World War before endiac the Saaogei Bat out of evil goad aavar eaaam War is always evil...
...The peoples in the poisoned atmosphere of- war breath ia bitterness, hate and vengeance...
...Then wo fought to destroy all th* remnants ef Absolutism...
...The consequences of this failure were fatal for all—for the vanquished and for the victors, for all the world...
...t • DeMAREE BESS in the Saturday Evening Pott of May 27 in an important, article entitled "The Cost of Roosevelt's 'Great Design'" wrote: "In accordance with this plsn—the postwar world mil be a loose association af the United Nations, .11 „ whop will be di|a*iont upon the wisdom and good aft af three Great Powers—the Soviet Union, the Brititt Empire aad the United States—plus China as a sort of courtesy Great Power...
...I know the severe criticism of the Versailles Treaty, so fashionable here for many years, has now stopped...
...Everyone who lived ia Paris in the "climate" of the Peace Conference, everyone who saw its works, who read afterwards the tragic writings of its participants —must come te the conclusion that the source of the fatal collapse of the Peace Conference was its press* terity...
...This war came with such incredible swiftness that fathers have gone back to the front lines with their sons while widows and orphans still wept for their lost loved ones, see Hitler would have remained an unknown adventurer if the first World War had not finished at Versailles with a peace which continued the war, aa the late State-Secretary Lansing wrote in his memoirs...
...The democracies needed time to understand the new distribution of international forces to create a new world balance...
...The dissolution of the old political and social structure of the world which began in 1914 is now complete...
...They csn police the dislocated world, reating not on the authority of .mutual ideology but on the might of their arma...
...What disturb* me is precisely the cynical outlook displayed by th* State Department by its proposal to resurrect the bullet-ridden League of Nations, with all its inconsistencies and with all its pious platitudes...
...Immediate alms of war, but are profoundly ditunited ia their political Ideals...
...The beautiful world of our dreamt is far away...
...Above all, they want an opportunity to discuss in a democratic manner the moil Important problem of all—the problem of the cominf world settlement...
...It is not mutual ideology but mutual self-preservation which unites Washington and London with the Kremlin and Bolder* these three Powers into s mighty military and political alliance...
...Roosevelt repeatedly stated In the past that there would be great danger of division among the allies and in the American public opinion if we should launch prematurely a new program for a permanent international organisation...
...bu Ely cuibertmn 1WAS profoundly disturbed by the President's statement of June IS, outlining the structure of the permanent international organisation for world peace proposed by our State Department It is clear that is proposes, substantially, to revive the old League of Nations, with its Executive Council which, as he says, "wmld include the four major nations and a suitsble number.of other notions...
...The heads of the democratic states wrote the charter of the new international system of freedom and justice under the tremendous pressure of the poisoned atmosphere of the war...
...Now, only certain specie* of Totalitarian Absolutism must be destroyed...
...Why waa the Versailles Treaty a fiasco...
...The empires of the Axis are condemned to disappear...
...IT is to be expected that in Mr...
...The creators of the Covenant of the League of Nations, of the Peace Treaties of 1919-20 did not have this priceless time st their disposal...
...That alliance was also organised for the solemn purpose of "maintaining world peace" by managing the affairs of the world...
...However, this plaa haa eae big quality which expiates all its apparent ideological empti aee...
...Triumvirate llomiiiaiioii— or World Federation...
...Like thousands of other dreamers I have my own draft for the ideal plan for a free and peace-loving world...
...Nearly all the military sal ocaaomic power la the world win ha eancentratei it th* band* af the Great Three...
...No doubt some transitory order can be restored by the Big Three...
...An • international organisation with elected truster...
...In the ecstasy of victory they dictated to th* vanquished sever* laws which were to govern their lives for decades...
...For the only difference between th* 1918 and 1944 "models" seems te lie in the more complete control of the entire world given to the Big Three—Britain, Russia and the United State*—who shall operate along the lines of the Holy Alliance of 1816...
...Hull has been able to produce after thesa years of feverish activity with thousands of so-called experts, then all I can say is that the American ship of state needs a new hull...
...Impatient worshippers of the future perfect world . do not like to accept the temporary structure...
...Churchill's declaration waa in complete harmony with the Atlantic Charter...
...In the hands of these three powers all the military and economic forces of the world will be concentrated OM the morrow of victory, and for this reason th* builders of th* new world will not be all desnocrats...
...Such s Federative Alliance is not • world state, since the only sovereign right thst we or other member states need to give up is the right to wage war of aggression, and since the international police force can be so organised as to enforce an effective common defense sgainst future warlords without in any way disturbing the structure of the armed force* of the United States or other leading nations...
...eve cannot leap from the hell ef global war directly to tha realm of global freedom we must e« patient tad we mast step mil tpeculation about • Third War which it too popular with certain elements of thi* country...
...All Europe, all the small states are in ruins...
...Influenced by monstrous events a complete revslustion ef this treaty has taken place...
...It collapsed like a bouse of cards, after seven years...
...and powers separate from the governments of its member states, based on an effective international polk-* force and open to all nations, would he Of enormous advantage to all...
...It even aaaoys seas people...
...The events of the last twenty-five years, a quarter of a century which hai been more tragic than a hundred centuries before—left not a trace, not an imprint on our State Department There it nothing in fait plan that will in the slightnt prevent the Third World War...
...I believe that the overwhelming majority of Americans do want a true system of collective defenH against aggressors, supported by an effective international police fore...
...To base a permanent international organization on nothing more than wishful hopes for lasting cooperation among three great sovereign states, with different national interests, economics and ideologies, is te build on a foundation of sand...
...but the victors no longer held the power to enforce the preservation of these laws...
...Tht* will appear te maay persons ss to* realistic to prove** any enthusiasm...
...The old League, like the new one, is merely a screen for the war-breeding power politics of the dominating powers...
...In the summer of 1921 I wrote: . . . Versailles, this epilogue of the Great War will become the prologue for a new global drama...
...All of aa ia the interim between the two wars saw th* results of this creation: the triumph of the dictators of different colors snd th* Second War, which this tiss* la truly a world and total war...
...Why this haste now ? Nothing could more bitterly divide the American public opinion than the official adoption of this proposal of the State Department Millions of Americans-do not want a war-breeding League of Nations, old or new...
...There are many deadly fallaciet that will accelerate and make inevitable the Third World War...
...I wss never these...
...a triumvirate of world dictator* is impossible...
...Not at alL The ¦ Atlantic Charter dees not mention either amy political freedom or any preeiee political regime...
...Roosevelt's immense preoccupation with the winning of the war he could not pay sufficient heed to matters of future wars...
...Th* "Great Design" of the Big Three is a mitm for the fraaafftew period only, the peried between the Armistice and th* real Peace...
...At Mr...
...Of course, it is nonseewe to assert that a perfect democratic near world order will arise by some miracle from this mixture of blood, sweat aad tears ss once Venus rose from the sea foam...
...But I do not publish it because for the realisation of my scheme no political or psychological ground exists...
...If this is all that Mr...
...the black has become white and the white, black...
...all this ia a great victory for good sense...
...Wsshiagten, Leads* aad the Kress lis are united ia the caacrete...
...Aad what will happen to the United States fifteen or twenty years hence, should some of th* vastly populous, rapidly iadastrislixing nations of Asia aad Europe fall lata the hand* of future Hitlers...
...They wish to guarantee freedom and personal rights for everyone everywhere and complete equality and justice for all nations great and small...
...They want th* immediate realisation of their dreams...
...It would be fantastic and entirely beyond the strength of the democratic powers," recently wrote William Henry Chamberlin, "to coere* all the countries of the world into observing the Pour Freedoms...
...This Alltanee it destined to win and to remake anew the whole globe...
...That is all the more reason not to press the adoption of this disastrous proposal for a "new" League of Nations until American public opinion has had ample opportunity te discuss it Mr...
...Recently liberals were shocked whoa Prime Minister Winston Churchill, referring te Spain, declared that every country, except the Axis, has th* right te choose the political and social regime it like...
...They canaot build any definite international system be rente while it is possible te build It either en democratic principles or on totaHtariaa principles, . it is i at possible to make any compromise between tw* suite iarompslible nays of life...
...This ia why th* idealistic aim of th* democracies ia this war Is very mtdeet in comparison with the first world war...
Vol. 27 • January 1944 • No. 27
