SOVIETS MOVE TO CAPTURE BERLIN THROUGH PHONY 'YOUTH MEETING'
MUHLEN, NORBERT
Soviets Move to Capture Berlin Through Phony 'Youth Meeting' Peoples Police of East Zone To March in Effort to Drive Americans From German Capital By NORBEST MUHLEN MOSCOW has scheduled a...
...And this move should get the widest possible publicity to demonstrate to the people of Berlin (and the rest of the1 world) the American determination to defend freedom in West Berlin...
...The omnibus bill is the "baby" of Senator Byrd of Virginia, real leader of the Dixiecrats in the Senate...
...But this too is essential to the Communist strategy of terror...
...Token arrests would not keep the rest of the Communist army from moving ahead on schedule...
...If the Americans answer force by force, a fearful propaganda howl will arise, denouncing the American killers of German children who peacefully demonstrated for peace on their Pentecostal holiday...
...And so far as civil rights are concerned, the Republicans have grabbed the ball by shoving through their toothless FEPC bill...
...But American opinion, which then proclaimed "we can't let them down," does not yet seem fully aware of the new threat...
...This "single-package" appropriation bill is the first in » hundred years in which Congress has attempted to lump all of the President's budget estimates for the various Government departments...
...The Administration might have to accept such a cut without a fight, or face the threat of getting no aRpropritions at all...
...It is reported that between the two enough votes have been marshalled to recommit the omnibus appropriations bill to committee with instructions to cut the total—or else...
...The Tydings subcommittee baa a majority of pro-Administration Senators on it, and the Administration feels that if an investigation of the State Department is unavoidable, it would be better to have it conducted by the Foreign Relation...
...subcommittee than by the hostilfi Appropriations Com* mittee...
...FIRST the United States must considerably strengthen its Berlin garrison...
...Despite the bans on demonstrations by both the Berlin city government and the Allied occupation authorities, mass arrests of a few hundred thousand invaders hardly seem feasible...
...They will be accompanied ¦ by children and youngsters of the Soviet-directed "Free German Youth," the Hitler Youth's Communist successor...
...The plan is much the same as the diabolical alternative on which the Soviets built their hopes in the Berlin blockade...
...And the East German "People's Police" are highly trained intthe techniques of civil war and streaj...
...As far as the minority of fanatical or professional toughs is concerned, the sight of American machine-guns ready to shoot might quickly discourage them...
...THE EFFECT OF THESE preparations will be that considerably less than the "half million" with which the Soviets try to frighten us, will actually show up in Berlin...
...and to make it clear to all that the youngsters are being" used as cover, camouflage and cannon-fodder in the Soviets' treacherous plan of conquest...
...Soviets Move to Capture Berlin Through Phony 'Youth Meeting' Peoples Police of East Zone To March in Effort to Drive Americans From German Capital By NORBEST MUHLEN MOSCOW has scheduled a decisive battle for the coming Whitsuntide...
...With so pitifully little of the Fair Deal enacted thus far, what can be expected of the final three months of the session...
...But America can again And a victorious way out of the Moscow-built trap...
...The invasion is camouflaged as a children"s crusade for peace and German unity, but—even though it is keyed to the Kremlin's world-wide appeasement offensive—it is a war-mongering provocation at the most vulnerable and spectacular point of the Cold War's Western front...
...Today Germany is ours...
...According to one line of thought, the humanitarian Americans will not dare to shoot at the •ynaimea' kids whom the Political Action Groups use as shield and camouflage...
...We know today that Hitler would have retreated without a shot (and the Second World War might have been avoided) if the West had not submitted time and again to his strategy of propagandistic terror and threatened farce...
...Thus the Communist High Command expects that Berlin must fall, either with a bang or with a whimper...
...to discourage and dissuade the youth—and their parents —from participation...
...the advance build-up is calculated to frighten the Derliners into defeatism and, at the same time, test the likely American reactions...
...The rest of the Fair Deal program appears to be in deep trouble...
...Even with the 11,000 West Berlin police, this is no match for the Communist forces of the East, estimated between 150,000 and 260,000...
...The very announcement itself is likely to sava many lives...
...Congress as it did the last...
...Senator Tydings originally said he saw no need for such an investigation and did not intend to hire an investigative staff...
...flighting, equipped with grenades, artillery, tanks and even planes, and ably commanded by Soviet officers, A force of approximately 100,000 'American troops—especially U.S...
...In every situation which presents a threat and which should be well-defined and well-publicized in advance, American troops should be given orders to shoot...
...The big increase which the President is demanding, Senator Byrd has pointed out, is for increased domestic civilian affairs...
...Only if we begin now can we expect West Berliners, West Germans, West Europeans to resist Moscow on their own...
...masked as Political Action Groups of the Eastern civilian youth...
...America must make it clear that it is unwaveringly dedicated to protecting the life and liberty of West Berliners...
...If, as we fervently hope, our persuasion to peace prevails and rioting can be avoided, the Soviet defeat will be impressive...
...Then they thought the choice wuld be starvation under American rule, followed by revolt, or submission to the Soviets...
...Orders of this sort, which might sacrifice human lives, are tragic...
...It is reported by well-informed circles on Capitol Hill that Senator Byrd wants to cut between two and three billion dollars from the President's budget estimates, all of it to be taken out of domestic civilian operations...
...Since the Soviets might purposely provoke shooting at misled youngsters to use it for propaganda, it is doubly tragic...
...And these two items are not by anv means major features of the program— repeal of federal oleomargarine taxes and stop-gap aid to Korea and the Far East...
...to inform everyone (with the documents already at our disposal) that the alleged "Free German Youth" are actually Moscow-led...
...By defending Berlin against aggression, this country can create a "situation of fact" which is likely to greatly strengthen our position in Europe...
...Since the German city authorities are unabfl- to master the people's upheaval against the American killers—the Soviets would broadcast— the People's Police" must be called from East Berlin to restore law and order...
...At the end of May, when Christians celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit, a Communist army will descend on West Berlin...
...BERLIN WILL BE OURS" is the slogan of the Communist aggressors, while the song of the young Nazis is sung again by the young Communists: Heute gehiirt wis Deutschland, Und morgen die ganze Welt...
...Moscow-serving shock Uoops of Communst oppression and Soviet conquest...
...If this second Soviet attempt at defeating the Americans in Berlin is successful, it would be as large a step toward Soviet domination of all Gerjnany, end all Ruf"ope, as victory in the battle of the blockade'would have been...
...The invasion, as its advance publicity clearly indicates, is aimed even more at America than at the freedom of West Berlin...
...Herbert Muhien, raving correspondent of The Nete Ltaitr end the American correspondent of the Berlin monthly Der Monut, recently surveyed on-the-spot conditions and attitudes In both she East and West sectors of Berlin...
...Now they figure the choices as American shooting of German youngsters, followed by revolt, or—once again—peaceful submission to the Communist invaders...
...THIRD...
...the Communists feel, the entire American policy of "containment" in Western Europe will fall with it...
...November...
...The outlook is definitely pessimistic...
...The bill already has passed the House...
...Constabulary and other hard-boiled detachments — should be moved from West Germany to Berlin...
...A stream of goodwill and friendly persuasion can win for the West all those demonstrators who are lukewarm or have been forced into the, Whit-week demonstration...
...An all-out effort must be made to enlighten the Germans on the character of the Whitweek aggression...
...No Maginot Line along the rambling West Berlin border could effectively keep out these invaders, once they try to cross it in large numbers...
...Once in West Berlin, the invasion army will set out to assault the centers of West Berlin democracy: the Schoeneberg Municipal Government, the radio stations, newspaper buildings, political party and union houses, perhaps even American installations, and most probably quite a few antiCommunist personalities...
...Even the Political Action Groups of the People's Police, which are to lead the fight, are untested under actual strain and, according to best intelligence, may not be thoroughly reliable from the Soviet point of view...
...The surprise peopiq...
...THE WORST BLOW to be struck by the- Republican-Dixiecrat coalition is expected on or about March 27, when Chairman Cannon of the House Appropriations Committee hopes to get the new Omnibus Appropriations Bill before, the House...
...SECOND, all the propaganda means at our disposal—the press, handbills, the Voice of America, the famous BIAS radio station, loudspeaker cars along the West sector borderlines—must be put to full-time use...
...It may not reach the Senate floor for a final vote until May, but it looks sure-fire for passage...
...The Administration might also be able to get a somewhat improved displaced persons bill through Congress, although this is far from certain...
...yj^ory ,o*v...
...The new Moscow plan is simple...
...To the call for an "All German Youth Meeting in Berlin" will respond the well-trained civil war shock troops of the Soviet-led "People's Police...
...The Soviet invasion plan contains a complete interplay of civil and psychological warfare...
...We must also counterattack on both levels, combining conviction and persuasion with force, using both with a thorough understanding of German mentality as well as Communist strategy...
...Although- 300,000 Allied troops are in West Germany, only 11,000 are in Berlin...
...and tomorrow, all the world...
...But that was before the Senate Appropriations Committee, on which the Republicans and Dixiecrats have a majority, discussed the question of ordering an investigation of the State Department before it would consent to approve any appropriations for that department...
...Solely on its merits, it might be more acceptable to the liberals in Congress if they did not understand that Senator Byrd's strategy is not concerned with the merits of the bill but with the crippling of Government, departments, which are carrying out previously - enacted progressive legislation, through slashing their appropriations...
...This report is credited with changing Senator Tydings' mind...
...In January the President listed as three "musts" the extension of Federal rent controls, cooperative housing and Federal aid to education...
...Moreover the rioting would inevitably reach the point of a "revolutionary situation...
...19-18, has been nullified by the Republican Dixieernt coalition which actually dominate...
...The Soviet strategists figure that no matter what happens after the Invasion, it is a Communist triumph...
...In new legislation, the only major Fair Deal plank that has a hopeful outlook is the new Social Security bill...
...this...
...And it has become evident that the 1948 people's mandate to get on with the Fair Deal will have to be renewed this coming November if any significant part of it is to see realization...
...For the past century the President's budget estimates have been voted on singly, department by department...
...The Soviets are out to win—by a new combination of naked force and planned terror—the isolated city which Americans and Germans so successfully defended in the brave, bloodless battle of the blockade...
...This constitutes a threat, therefore, not only against any new legislation, but also against the operations of New Deal legislation adopted as far back as the 1930s...
...Fair Deal Program Is Lost In Congressional Shuffle By JONATHAN STOUT New Leader Washington Correspondeni WASHINGTON...
...The outlook on appropriations is behind the unexpected decision of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee, headed by Senator Tydings, to hire a staff and conduct an investigation of the State Department charges made by Senator McCarthy...
...If we start immediately, visibly and intelligently, to counter-attack with all the means at our command, we can turn this impending defeat into victory...
...SUPPORTING Senator Byrd's scheme is Rep...
...But Americans must' convince the people beforehand that they are forced to use their weapons in self-defense, in defense of the Germans, in defense of freedom and peace...
...In that case Berlin will be Communist by default...
...Since the Soviets have welladvertised their plan of aggression, we should advertise just as clearly that groups of more than, say ten, youngsters will be considered as invading military shock troops rather than visiting Germans, and are liable to be treated according to the rules of war...
...This line will have a decided effect on quite a few people...
...D. C. AS THE FINAL SESSION of the 81st Congress reaches its estimated midway mark after almost three months of continual deliberation, only two planks of the Truman program have-been enacted and have actually reached the White House for the Presidential signature...
...This is $8 billions more than the budget for 1948...
...Within the past fortnight all three curled up to a crisp...
...Totalitarian regimes recede as soon as they see decided resistance...
...And, once shown that Americans do not live up to their protective promises, resistance to'Moscow will suffer a horrible blow from Bonn to Paris, from Helsinki to Rome...
...The Social Security Administration, the Labor Department and the National Labor Relations Board are among those marked for Byrd's axe...
...That includes the President's Point 4 program for underdeveloped areas, proposed membership in the International Trade Organization, the ECA and Xuropean military aid appropriations...
...A realistic summation at midterm, therefore, shows the 81st Congress with its Democratic majority to be no better and no worse than the 80th Congress with its Republican majority...
...WHAT SEEMS AMAZING is that the plans have been announced so early...
...It is this sum, mainly, that Senator Byrd is aiming to cut, stating that one of the advantages of an omnibus appropriation bill is the practicability of putting through a horizontal 5 or 10 per cent cut in appropriations and make its effective...
...The President's budget estimates come to $42.4 billions...
...This will be shown again if we win the Whitsunday battle of Berlin...
...1 economy axe-wielder...
...John Taber of New York, the GOP's No...
Vol. 33 • March 1950 • No. 12
