A TRUMAN-STALIN MEETING?
DALLIN, DAVID J.
East and West A Truman-Stalin Meeting? By David j. Dallin (First of two articles) THE KREMLIN'S "peace" arrows have reached Capitol Hill. To some of our lawmakers they seem to bear a...
...To some of our lawmakers they seem to bear a promising message...
...Every day Moscow pounded home its desire for firm peace, lasting peace, nothing but peace...
...You have lost these nations anyway, Stalin says implicitly to the West...
...The de facto situation is Stalin's strongest argument...
...and it wants to achieve its goal by a meeting of thfe Big Two or Big Three...
...Then came the secret commitment to invade Poland...
...Russia is constantly in need of economic assistance from the West—why should it destroy the West's confidence...
...Any changes in the relationship between the Communist-run nations are an international problem so long as the Western powers do not announce their disinterest in the affairs of the Soviet sphere...
...There is no capitalism in Russia," quite a few non-Communists said, "why should 'they* try to expand, to conquer...
...In the 1930s this country showed considerable mistrust when Moscow started its peace campaigns...
...Looking up the magazines and newspapers of twenty years ago, it is surprising to note how history repeats it«self...
...Intelligent men are obligated to listen to both...
...to repeat errors is foolish...
...at such a heady moment eVen the prudent and cautious refuse to make retreats before the adversary...
...Soviet expectations now run high...
...It looks as if amnesia lias become endemic to the political writers and thinkers in this country...
...Whether a Rumanian or German army shall be created, or frontiers changed, or one nation's industry incorporated in another nation's industrial plans—whatever reform is contemplated will be made difficult, unless the West subscribes to a "hands-off" policy...
...There have always been two records on the Moscow phonograph—an ingratiating one and a bellicose one...
...Partition of the world into "spheres of interest" would be the best way of eliminating any kind of Western intervention in the affairs of the Greater Soviet Union...
...the second is audible only in Soviet schools, universities, academies, educational "circles...
...Skeptics used to quote Lenin and revolutionary communist doctrine to prove otherwise...
...the second is steady, it evolves slowly, its changes take decades or generations...
...Capitalism and communism can coexist peacefully, sings the Soviet phonograph on one occasion...
...What is the aim behind this forceful propaganda attack...
...Its theme nowadays is "coexistence...
...it advocates a settlement on all issues between Russia and the U.S...
...we rely on purely "internal developments" of every capitalist nation to bring socialism to other countries...
...IN THIS COUNTRY people usually listenas Moscow wants them to—to the first, the propaganda record...
...as a matter of fact, you are ousted from my sphere...
...and, somewhat later, the war in the Far East...
...Stalin was speaking in all languages and in a thousand voices: we desire nothing but peace, we are not interested in military victories, we do not seek territorial expansion...
...Phrases were coined ad hoe: "Communism is not a merchandise for export...
...It would be futile to expect that in a Big Two conference Staljri' will give away anything—either Eastern Germany, or Northern Korea, or Manchuria, or Bulgaria, or Poland...
...This is what Moscow is trying to achieve by its "peace offensive...
...And the question has therefore been raised, publicly and privately: Should the world's two biggest leaders get together somewhere between Moscow and Washington and smoke the pipe of peace...
...we are trying to build "socialism in one country...
...The first is fickle, like the weather in March...
...Perhaps lasting peace can be achieved along these lines...
...Where were our Senators and columnists when the class went through its lessons on contemporary history...
...To make this avalanche of propaganda effective, Staifn himself to allegedly prepared, "against the doctor's advice," to travel far abroad...
...And people, surprixd and sometimes dumbfounded, began to listen and to ask themselves: Perhaps there is some truth in these assertions...
...the war on Finland...
...Communism, says one recording sweetly, is a popular movement, a purely ideological matter, a growth which must develop and ripen peacefully...
...We abhor wars, the first tune goes...
...Soviet foreign policy, culminating in Mao Tse-tung's victory in China, has reached the very pinnacle of success...
...And on the next it warns darkly: "Woe to the Communist who really believes this pacifist fairy tale...
...The first record is played through loudspeakers in the trenches between East and West...
...Perhaps Stalin is our most reliable ally...
...and finally the long series of territorial acquisitions in Europe and Asia...
...TO ERR IS HUMAN...
...The other record thunders: but violence acts as midwife at the birth of a new society...
...But the second shouts: . . . Except wars that serve the great Cause...
...What I ask you to do is just acknowledge the plain facts, and to let rfle do whatever I choose within my realm...
...one is the fiction of the national sovereignty of the satellites...
...but Moscow drowned them out...
...the annexation of the Baltic States...
...Various obstacles, however, stand in his way...
...There is so much to improve, to build, to reform in Russia, why should they interfere in the affairs of other nations...
...Stalin's immediate aim is to consolidate the Communist-ruled part of the world, to gain the time required to weld this agglomerationof nations and areas, from the Adriatic to the Pacific, into a single structure, strong enough to withstand any danger or attack, and capable of expanding farther at a later date...
...And what can Stalin offer in exchange...
Vol. 33 • March 1950 • No. 12
