COLD WAR: ACT TWO
DALLIN, DAVID J.
East and West Cold War: Act Two By David J. Dallin ThU Is the wand at two oalm— lifJtpf Dallln <m tli* Mr flbvM lta* to Ettrop* DESPITE SOVIET WILLINGNESS to refrain from new offensives...
...In a very thoughtful column, Marquis Childs recently summarized an eoltorM by (^oXttit Gb|$6ppe Dalla Torre, ecn^&n^chief of OaffeyilftroRomano, the official paper of the Vatican.* According to Childs, the Italian editor "went so far as to say that the church would almost prefer, communism to capitalism if it were not for the atheism and materialism of the former...
...It works...
...unless Yugoslavia is reconquered, Albania will be lost to Moscow...
...Who...
...ALL THROUGH what should be our happy commencement season this notion about the .fixity of the American system has been drummed into hopeful graduates...
...We are too weak to resist the Germans, Lenin frankly admitted when he signed the Brest-Litovsk treaty...
...eatuee ~ef tisae, popular rebellion...
...it was carried out more than once by Lenin and, in the first stages of his power, by Stalin too...
...Nothing is so detrtmentalto a dictatorial power, as defeat —military defeat or simply diplomatic retreat...
...Thus, it would be difficult for the Soviet government to make a serious retreat in Europe because retreat would generally produce the impression of Soviet weakness...
...knows whether Titoism will not spread further...
...But it is the basis on which satellite governments are built...
...Thereafter, Stalin, following Lenin, called upon his comrades to recognize that a period of capitalist stabilization had begun and would make Communist revolutions in Europe impossible for a considerable time...
...On the other hand, weakness produces weakness, and paralyzes peoples, states and great parties...
...Viewing the plantation system of the old South, the individual enterprise system of early New England, the great scheme of public land division which underlay the development of the West or, finally, the wide range of projects whereby our business is now caried on, anyone would soon see that ours is not one system but a great maze of meshing and constantly changing systems...
...We are too poor and inexperienced to socialize the whole economy, Lenin maintained when he turned toward the NEP...
...Certainty of a defeat paralyzes the forces of resistance...
...POPULAR MOVEMENTS REACH POWER when they grow to considerable proportions •Ml when, in genersj,- tbetr strength cerrespends to their mass ifcflowfag, say the- tew books...
...Without divisibility, in fact, there can be no progres...
...It works very well...
...Ou% of the victories of the last decade a legend has been woven that the torch of Soviet Socialism it being successfully carried to other countries...
...The idea first came to me on reading a release about Freedoms Foundation, Inc., a conclave of business big boys headed by a group of advertising men...
...Today the situation is different...
...One of our prime difficulties in finding ways of cooperation with Western Europe is the wide misunderstanding of what the American system really is...
...Moscow cannot acquiesce in that state of Affairs...
...As soon as a new popular movement attains power, it begin* to perpetuate itself, to enlarge, to expand...
...But the American spokesman is as much opposed to change as anyone in Russia...
...it would generate sripasstisii, resistance, and, in the...
...It is about time we began to let Europeans know what really goes on here...
...The Home Front This American system By William E. Bohn FOR A LONG TIME I have had at the tips of my fingers a little essay on this socalled free enterprise system of ours...
...In the Balkans the situation is untenable because of the Yugoslav split...
...There i*, fcowevej, ptasrty of misery, dissatisfaction and indignation amopg th» people...
...We have changed it, we are changing it and we shall continue to change it...
...Twenty or thirty years ago such a retreat was feasible...
...Consistent contraction of the Soviet sphere is the primary precondition for peace...
...An aura of invincibility has been built around Stalin, Stalin's government, and the Soviet Union...
...There are some who are toe rich, while others are too poor...
...The Balkans remain the powder keg of Europe...
...The Implication is that both systems, the Russian and the American, are equally fixed and indivisible, and the only difference between them is that ours is good and theirs bad...
...That is why it works and will continue to work...
...I don't know why it is, but our finest philosophers, soldiers, statesmen arid business leaders became pompous asses when they stand, up to give advice to hopeful youngsters lined up to say farewell to their Alma Mater...
...The Count explained that "the notion* of communism of dividing all the world's goods among all the World's inhabitants has much more in common with Christianity than a system that seeks to concentrate the major part of the goods in the hands of a few men...
...that Soviet power is greater than any other, greater even than that of all other nations combined...
...The men planning this scheme of'awards are opposed to communism, and that is well...
...For this reason, maintenance of the statu* ^uo is no solution...
...The day Moscow is forced to admit failure and weakness will be the day when both the international situation and, even more so, the internal situatian in Russia will undergo radical change...
...One of the, minor sins of Stalin has been the effect which he has had on American thinking and oratory...
...Bordering on'Yugoslavia and Greece, she is a kind of Cominform colony on the Adriatic...
...This condition cannot last long...
...Almost no popular up* risings occur...
...He has accepted the Russian system of thought...
...But as long as the myth of the Kremlin's invincibility continues, no great changes can be expected and noosi>osition can become successful...
...If Allied armed forces are withdrawn, fighting will break out on a grand scale between Eastern and Western zones...
...The . ups and downs- of the* business cycle are m trial which Congress does not' yet take seitotHty* But it is flexible...
...I hope I am not ignobly suspicious, but I confess that this whole project looks to me unpleasantly propagandists...
...AMERICAN POLITICIANS AND WRITERS ought to get through their heads the fact that this intelligent European has been taught b#us that our system .Hhe capitalist system, the free enterprise system, "tr-ir scheme permanently organized to "concentrate the major part of goods in the hands of a few men...
...The prospect of having something like 100 awards handed out each year to persons active in letters, arts, journalism, education and business is also nice—the effect of these on our national life, it is suggested, may be comparable with that of the Nobel prizes on international thinking...
...These are the ultimate reasons whifcn will make it rather difficult to win considerable concessions from the Soviet government in the second act of the cold war...
...East and West Cold War: Act Two By David J. Dallin ThU Is the wand at two oalm— lifJtpf Dallln <m tli* Mr flbvM lta* to Ettrop* DESPITE SOVIET WILLINGNESS to refrain from new offensives against the "capitalist West" and to embrace the status quo in Europe, no stability can be reached, and the second act of the cold war is being fought relentlessly...
...Perhaps it is the picture of this indivisible bundle that rubbed me the wrong way...
...In its charter the organization is said to have been set up "to build and create an understanding of the spirit and philosophy of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and our 'bundle' of indivisible political and eeonemic freedoms inherent in the American way of life...
...Soviet penetration westward these last four years has been so great that Stalin's government has devoured more than it can digest...
...Not perfectly, of course...
...Judging by newspaper reports, this year's crop of academic orations has been especially bad...
...Now all of this is especially unfortunate at the present time...
...This analysis' applies no leas to the situation instil nwspii.These is no "reairtaew" in Ruesia today in the militant sense of the word: no fjhting, no parties, no orgenias)|ieae>Thegeneral opinion iathat resistant* is fttOe...
...He retreated before British pressure in 1923 after the famous Curzon ultimatum...
...Last week I tried to outline the situation in Germany...
...In human history and sociology nothing is indivisible...
...and its new growth is often irrelevant to the amount of its popular support, We have observed how power generates power, how one success leads to another...
...But the experience of recent decades suggests an important correction of this- old sociological thesis...
...This analysis makes it plain that the cold war will go on as long as Russia refuses to withdraw from Easterh Europe into its own territory, and let all <* J*w*t o* its eeWites choose their own form oTgovernment and conduct an independent foreign policy...
...Actually, there has never been a more flexible economic system than ours...
...Its blessings are unevenly distributed both in time and space...
...For some reason the British have permitted the Albanian Communist\government to continue in office and to indulge in a terrorism which exceeds the usual Cominform pattern...
...It is untenable...
...The situation is untenable in Albania, too...
...BWh a majority of the Comr/nasast peaty mm only half-hearted adherents of current policies...
...We have come to the point where all an aspirant to oratorial pre-eminence need do is denounce the Soviets, loudly laud the American system . . . and his speech is made...
...This is an obviously wellheeled organization for the purpose of granting annual awards for outstanding contributions to a better understanding of the American way of life...
...If a peace treaty with Austria is signed, Soviet troops will have to withdraw from Hungary and Rumania...
...18 A SOVIET RETREAT under peaceful conditions possible...
...Soviet Russia's invincibility is, of course, a fairy tale...
...there is little resistance and virtually no sabotage, despite general dissatisfaction...
Vol. 32 • July 1949 • No. 28
