Molotov's Report to Malenkov
DALLIN, DAVID J.
Molotov Reports to Malenkov How the Soviets view Geneva, Indo-China and Europe By David J. Dallin Dear Georgi Maximilianovich: How paradoxical geography is today! Czech guns, ordered by Moscow,...
...Aneurin Bevan, a minority's minority leader, coerces his official leader, Clement Attlee...
...for this reason, they will continue to acquiesce in our successes for a considerable time at least...
...Now he is busy "creating machinery" in Southeast Asia, after a number of other such "machineries" have been created, under American auspices, in the Middle East and Europe...
...Czech guns, ordered by Moscow, sent through China to Indo-China, have fired shells which exploded over the Atlantic and inflicted political wounds in Washington, London and Paris...
...The weakness of this lawyer is his faith in contracts, agreements and treaties...
...France was glad to get substantial military aid, but London's reaction was unexpectedly and decisively negative...
...After a few weeks, we would all agree to close the conference with the decision to call another conference somewhere later...
...now more than ever...
...They will also discuss new ways of arming Germany, but on this issue they do not have the support of Labor...
...the only serious issue...
...full steam ahead...
...His favorite formula to remedy all troubles is to "create the machinery" to "resist Russia...
...And the United States is nearly isolated...
...Had I done so, I would now be hailed as a great peacemaker...
...But Mr...
...We learned that, on April 3, Admiral Arthur Radford had told a closed meeting of Congressional leaders that U. S. Navy carriers in South Asian waters were capable of sending 200 planes for a formidable blow to relieve Dienbienphu, but that Radford did not yet have the consent of the other U. S. Chiefs of Staff for such a raid...
...Meanwhile, the Geneva Conference opened in an atmosphere of unprecedented and mounting confusion inside the alleged "Western bloc...
...Georges Bidault and Anthony Eden would warmly shake my hand, and a battalion of correspondents would rush to their telephones to announce that peace was being achieved, thanks to the new spirit of coexistence which animates the foreign policy of the Soviet Union...
...They will not change their attitude toward China...
...if his course had been followed, a real war might be going on already...
...At this moment, the danger of a military reaction to the Soviet course in foreign affairs does not exist...
...In Geneva, naturally, we had to oppose France...
...In the present situation, rapprochement with England against America is one of our most important tasks???much more important than ties with France...
...By now, nobody expects the United States to enter the scene with anything except messages, interviews and speeches...
...Britain will remain a Great Power...
...In this case, I would emerge from the negotiations as the "stubborn," uncompromising "disciple of Stalin...
...Our situation had changed again...
...the fatigue seems to have infected even the Communist party, which does not possess either the courage or the force to assume power in the face of its opponents' weakness...
...The moral effects were formidable...
...Britain's policies in the Far East deserve particular study: Her recognition of China was made contrary to Washington's wishes...
...Now Churchill and Eden are going to Washington to try to smooth relations with their chief ally...
...General Matthew Ridgway, on the other hand, is cautious: Since the United States Army has been cut two divisions, he says, the Government must desist from large-scale operations...
...The conclusions to be drawn from this survey of the world situation are as follows: Never before has our position been as favorable as it is today...
...Dulles does not differentiate between machinery built of iron and machinery made of paper and ink...
...They will agree to take part in the Southeast Asia bloc which they torpedoed earlier, but their belated consent will change nothing...
...From start to finish, I was in a position to propose an armistice which would leave Laos and Cambodia, as well as part of Vietnam, to France...
...As I have noted, Britain's position has been decisive in more than one respect...
...But of all the results of Indo-China, Berlin and Geneva, one of the most significant is the collapse of this old Great Power...
...It is another paradox that America, having finally mastered and subdued its old isolationism, now pursues an activist policy which once again isolates her from the other powers...
...Her role and her influence are tremendous, if only because her young and ambitious American partner looks with awe on the old foxes of Downing Street...
...Indian Prime Minister Nehru informed London that his government would not participate in the Dulles project, and Churchill, pressed by the Labor party, instructed the British Ambassador in Washington to abstain from the Dulles conference...
...The Tory Government, though staunchly anti-Communist, has played a peculiar role in the Far East...
...Or, as they say in English, "No time to lose...
...In Paris, Dulles and Bidault had almost agreed on a massive air operation in which some 500 planes would take part, while General Navarre declared that a raid of that magnitude could relieve the siege...
...Refusing to draw the consequences from the unfavorable situation, Dulles deploys a tremendous activity in all parts of the world...
...her firm friendship with Nehru arouses American resentment...
...All through the conference, I could choose between delaying tactics or tactics which could bring about quick agreement...
...This is regrettable, because France under any government is our potential ally on the Continent...
...Yours, V. M. Molotov Here David J. Dallin, renowned Russian expert and contributing editor of The New Leader, attempts to view the Western world through Moscow's eyes...
...The Mendes-France regime will pave the way for a Franco-Soviet rapprochement...
...But the situation changed before we made any decisive move...
...He has chosen the form of fictitious report from Molotov to Malenkov, analyzing British, French and American policies...
...Recruiting of native armies for Bao Dai became Simply impossible, while the Vietminh army was growing by leaps and bounds...
...particularly the whole reading, thinking, intelligent part of the nation...
...It was expected that President Eisenhower would go before Congress on April 26 and that the operation would start on April 28...
...France is through, at least so long as she has a non-Communist regime...
...And they call all this a "fight against Communism...
...to be sure of that, Chou En-lai has just sent his first envoy to London...
...Without explaining what was going on behind the scenes, the American and British press minimized the disagreements, while repeating one of Dulles's new phrases about "peace through strength...
...The whole nation is absorbed in a new kind of sport...
...Yet, Dulles had talked to a number of diplomats, and very soon we knew that the British attitude had made U.S...
...There was little time to lose: Dienbienphu had to be taken as soon as possible...
...Finally, after it had become a symbol of "resistance to Communism," Dienbienphu fell...
...Admiral Radford heads the activist group...
...While the American Government and Congress are divided on the great issues, no one has tried to prepare the people for a crisis...
...It is as if a terrible fatigue had embraced the nation and all its parties, from the rightists to the Socialists...
...He is an artist at coining formulas (like "massive retaliation," "agonizing reappraisal," "united action"), but his slogans and formulas have remained on paper thus far...
...Then came another relapse...
...These details, known to French Government circles, were promptly reported to us, and I wondered whether our stand would have to change...
...The shipment, we learned, was part of a larger project, and we could not tell whether land forces would follow...
...watching McCarthy and his opponents...
...we had no reason to make concessions, if only because each week was bringing new successes to our side...
...never before have our opponents been as deeply divided, confused and disoriented as they are today...
...sit before their TV sets and listen to a hot dispute about how often a soldier named G. David Schine was permitted to see his girl friends and how a young man named Roy Cohn used bad language...
...In a situation like this, when the enemy is wounded and victory must be secured, Comrade Lenin used to say in German: "Und nun erst recht...
...but we never forget that tomorrow she will be our first ally among the non-Communist rations...
...but with diminishing results...
...We were not certain which was the wiser course when we received the news that America was assembling a large force to send to Indo-China, consisting chiefly of aviation and artillery and including atomic weapons...
...Nobody expected anything substantial to come out of the Southeast Asia "bloc," whereas the Chinese People's Republic was becoming a great power in Asia...
...people everywhere ceased to believe in France's ability to fight and in her allies' willingness to aid her...
...Churchill restrains Eden, who, in the end, proves strong enough to hold back Dulles and Eisenhower...
...And I was relieved of the dubious honor of appearing as the Soviet leader seeking compromise...
...Once the Indo-China war is ended, French ties to America will crumble, and neutralist, anti-American tendencies will dominate French policies...
...Military preparations were stopped, and Dulles flew to London to discuss matters with Eden and Churchill...
...They spoke copiously on the subject of Korea, pretending to believe that something could be done about it...
...her policy in the Korean War prevented several heavy blows by the Americans, thus preserving North Korea as a people's democracy...
...there is no doubt on that score...
...If this was to be America's course, we could hardly hope for a brilliant success in Indo-China, and so, it seemed, I would have to choose the conciliatory policy at Geneva and propose armistice terms acceptable to the other side...
...What they call the "alliance of free nations" does not exist...
...nor is it likely to re-emerge soon unless we get dizzy with success and start to lose patience...
...Our goal remains the same: to make England the India of Europe...
...Then John Foster Dulles approached his allies about these plans...
...American Vice President Nixon told newspaper correspondents that the United States might be obliged to dispatch troops to Indo-China, and his statement coincided with Dulles's invitations for a Southeast Asian conference...
...Among American civilian and military leaders, two trends are discernible...
...even though everyone realized that, because we had won the military victories, we Soviet delegates could ride in and out of Geneva on the wave of an unprecedented triumph...
...On Indo-China...
...The United States is weakened by the defection of its main allies and by the disagreements among its own leaders...
...While history was made at Dienbienphu and Hanoi, all of us at Geneva had to pretend that the spectral realms on Lake Leman had some reality...
...military intervention dubious...
...On the other hand, I could choose the line of our usual peace-loving speeches, denunciations of America, involved multi-point programs and futile negotiations...
...This was practically the end...
...Attlee, a violent anti-Communist, coerces Churchill...
...From 20 to 25 million men and women...
Vol. 37 • June 1954 • No. 26
