The Atlantic Community

...2. Europeans feel that American economic policies are framed without serious regard for Europe's economic predicament...

...The American people must realize that delicate matters of foreign policy cannot be dealt with in national town meetings, with the entire world sitting in the gallery...

...This can be done in consultation with Congressional leaders of both parties, even though the final policy is subject, anyhow, to Congressional approval in one form or another...

...Who is responsible for France's fall from her pre-1914 might and wealth...

...For no diplomatic or military success of ours in Korea or Indo-China, no matter how important, could ever make up for the tremendous Communist victory that a decisive split between Britain and America would mean...

...We tell our people not to worry, because we will erect a continental defense system to warn us of the approach of enemy bombers...

...European exports to other areas of the world must be expanded...

...But it is little consolation to people in London, Paris, Amsterdam or the Ruhr that U.S...

...Western Europe simply cannot live, pressed between the Iron Curtain to the east and the American tariff wall to the west...

...As this article is being written, the cleavage between us and our most important ally, the United Kingdom, has widened to a grave extent...

...There are many nations which need European goods but lack the means to pay for them...

...It gives our enemies manifold opportunities for propaganda and intrigue...

...THE ATLANTIC COMMUNITY By Oscar Schnabel Far more important than Indo-China, Korea or Germany is maintaining the integrity of the Atlantic alliance in the face of genuine divisions and Kremlin pressures No matter how important equitable solutions of the Korean, Indo-Chinese and German problems may be, the most vital single issue facing the United States is the preservation and strengthening of the Atlantic Community...

...Obviously, such a procedure would be possible only if there were genuine bipartisan cooperation on foreign policy...

...Shall we try to meet this threat by inflationary means, accompanied by high-pressure selling in the export market (in competition with the products of our own allies) ? Or shall we consider the political consequences of our economic policy in terms of maintaining the allied anti-Communist front...

...Yet, even within this cultural and economic unit, by the time World War II broke out only a few nations were free of totalitarian rule...

...But all efforts to coordinate our policy with those of our allies will be fruitless if we continue to shut our eyes to their economic problems...

...It is a widespread American opinion that the main roots of European anti-Americanism are Communist propaganda and envy...

...For only if the non-Soviet world can provide outlets for British, French, German and other European production can European trade with the Soviet bloc be kept within reasonable limits...

...To most Americans, Europe is the eastern shore of the Atlantic and, as such, the first line of defense against Communist aggression, an important rampart of Fortress America...

...The second area of friction concerns U.S...

...To stimulate such trade, our Point Four program must become a reality on a much larger scale than now envisaged...

...Therefore, the more difficult we make it for Europe to export to our country, the more we force her to trade with the Soviet bloc...

...The First World War constricted this Europe...

...Premature publicity creates serious difficulties for the conduct of our foreign policy: ?It deprives our Government of all flexibility in negotiations...

...One of the cardinal points of that policy is to press Europe into an economic unity which would create a large common market based on increased production and consumption...

...The example of Benelux—even today unable to realize the major aims of the economic union first proposed during World War II—shows how difficult is the task set by American policy-makers...

...The submerged tensions within the Atlantic Community came to the fore in connection with American policies in Asia...

...After the war, we gave Europe the dollars to buy our goods...

...the weakest Communist movements are in the Scandinavian and Low Countries...

...However important Indo-China may be to France, she certainly would prefer abandoning it completely to facing H-bomb attacks on Paris...

...No better means could be found to reduce Communist influence in these countries than a genuine and marked improvement in social conditions...

...Pressure mounts on Congress and the State Department, counter-pressure is created in allied countries, and, before there is a fair chance to elaborate a common policy with our allies, their neutralists and our extremists have created an atmosphere of suspicion that is poison to the Atlantic Community...

...What our Government considers necessary to tell the people should, if possible, be told after consultation with our friends...

...Schnabel, the former Austrian Consul General in the Netherlands, now resides in the United States...

...It is only with the utmost of patience that we can pursue a policy of uniting free Europe...

...And, quite clearly, the maximum of the possible, rather than what we consider most desirable, is the only realistic basis for allied policy...

...Before World War II, only I per cent of the foreign trade of the present Soviet satellites was with Russia...

...Let us consider these objections individually...

...If it were true that Communist propaganda is a major cause, that would only prove that the Communists understand how to speak to Europeans better than we do...

...The problem of preserving Allied cooperation, therefore, is intrinsically a problem of popular consent to the broader policy objectives which the NATO powers share...

...we should avoid ill-conceived shortcuts and shotgun marriages between former enemies...

...Yet, too few Americans realize that our export trade is impossible unless would-be buyers of American goods have the dollars to pay for them...

...Are we surprised that these experiences are still remembered...

...Now trade between Western and Eastern Europe, apart from its serious political consequences, would only be a revival of the prewar trade patterns...

...reap very serious consequences in which our allies might be forced to choose between the risk of atomic annihilation and disruption of their ties with America...

...Therefore, continuation of our protective-tariff policy is not only economic nonsense, but also a pro-Communist counter to our anti-Communist policy...

...French governments must cope with a strongly divided public opinion, ranging from rightist colonialists to leftist abandonists, which is united only in declining to follow American leadership...

...Restrictions on such trade could be accepted in the face of a seemingly imminent Soviet aggression, but Europeans now think that danger is no longer imminent...

...Another economic problem must be considered, and that is the economic future of the United States itself...

...only then can we consider measures to resolve the current difficulties...

...improvisations should be conscientiously avoided...

...Even if we followed all the suggestions in this article, there would still remain the problem of improving social conditions in Western Europe, particularly in France and Italy...

...Without the cooperation of our Atlantic allies, we would lose not only inestimable moral force but also tremendous human and material resources...

...3. Europeans fear that American policies in Asia may Oscar Schnabel has devoted many years to the study of European economic problems, which he has discussed frequently in the pages of The New Leader and other journals...

...When our course meets legitimate objections by our friends, our Government must have sufficient flexibility to reach common ground with our allies...

...But I would like to express the ardent hope that, whoever or whatever was wrong with the Western attitudes toward Asian problems, enlightened statesmanship will find a solution which safeguards the Atlantic alliance...

...What can we do to meet the rational European objections to the conduct of American foreign policy...

...It might also be helpful if questions on foreign policy to be asked at press conferences were submitted in writing a few days in advance...

...I do not think it appropriate in an article of this kind to deal with matters involving such day-to-day decisions...

...In fact, from the purely economic point of view it would he easier to create an all-European common market (including Russia and the satellites) than to make an economic unit of Western Europe...

...Government guarantees against political risks, could be directed into the European mortgage business...

...even if we opened our doors to all European products, eliminating intra-European trade is as difficult as abolishing trade between our industrial East and agricultural Midwest...

...The very existence of such pressures underlines the lack of the "Atlantic thinking" necessary to maintain consistent Western policies...

...In Western Europe, the strongest Communist parties have existed in the nations with the worst social and economic conditions, France and Italy...

...The facts are that, first, such a unity is difficult to achieve, and, second, it would not by itself solve Europe's basic economic problems...

...A primary obstacle to new housing is the shortage of mortgage means...

...But we can minimize such resentment by convincing the Allied peoples that we will not use our power to force distasteful policies upon them, and that we will not accumulate wealth by means detrimental to them...

...With the Second World War, Nazism and Fascism became unpopular and, with the exception of Franco Spain, totalitarianism was principally a Communist movement...

...Since we lost the monopoly of new weapons, there has been no rational alternative to a policy of close cooperation with our NATO partners...

...One of the greatest problems in this connection is the terrible shortage of decent housing which, despite the efforts of the Marshall Plan, persists to this day...

...With such guarantees, it would be profitable business for American investors and also would help finance European imports...

...As for envy, we cannot completely eliminate the resentment due to the huge increase of American power and wealth which resulted, or so it would seem, from the same World War II which so greatly diminished the power and wealth of our European allies...

...the Vichy regime was in many ways a natural development...

...This is no accident, and, if we wish to be realistic, we will understand that so-called psychological warfare is of little avail if it is not accompanied by an efficient improvement of economic and social conditions...

...If we are inclined to think that an agreed policy with our allies falls short of what we consider necessary, then we must face this question: Which serves our resistance to Communism better—to do less than we consider desirable and maintain Atlantic unity, or to pursue our aims without allied cooperation...

...The possible is what will be backed by a substantial majority of the Atlantic peoples...

...declarations on Asia were slighting legitimate European interests...

...Who is responsible for Britain's losses of power and wealth...

...Visualizing a cold war that could last for many years, they do not feel constrained to live all those years against the facts of economic geography...

...In spite of our predominant position in NATO...

...No serious European expects, for example, that we should recognize Red China in return for empty promises: but Europeans cannot understand the usefulness of the frequent American declarations that we will not recognize Peking under any circumstances...

...I see three main lines of criticism: 1. Europeans believe that American policy is framed with little regard for historical and traditional facts of life...

...In any case, we can certainly limit the effects of such propaganda by ceasing to furnish it the meaty material of our own mistakes...

...Czechoslovakia, which had the good fortune of assuming the most valuable assets of the Austro-Hun-garian Empire without participating in its liabilities, was quite democratic in those rich areas inherited from Austria, but not quite so democratic in the poor sections which had formerly belonged to Hungary...

...Perhaps the most important source of European resistance to America is what seems to be the careless American attitude toward atomic war, which disregards the geographical facts of Europe's life...

...At the start of the present crisis, we first had extended Congressional discussion of sending airplanes and technicians to Indo-China, which made it clear to France that we did not want to join the war...

...In the last few years, that cooperation has been placed under severe strains, which have fostered anti-Americanism in Europe and anti-European sentiment in the United States...

...our diplomats are subjected to limitations which few business executives must face...

...When the President or the Secretary of State speaks to Congress or the press or the people, he also speaks to the world...

...Only a foreign policy above party can create that foreign confidence in the stability of our course which is now so emphatically lacking...

...Now she is nearing the point where she could pay for them out of her own exports—provided she had sufficient export markets...

...The Geneva Conference revealed the state of disunion within the Atlantic Community—a disunion created by the nationalist and "go-it-alone" pressures from home which acted upon the Western diplomats...

...In that case, basic trade interests would more and more propel our European allies toward a neutralist policy—disaster for the Atlantic alliance...

...To Europeans, Europe is a continent divided from Asia by the Ural Mountains, deep within the Soviet Union...

...The answer should be obvious, considering that the Kremlin's primary aim is to separate us from our allies...

...From varying points of view, both Britain and France felt that the frequently inconsistent official and semi-official U.S...

...one or the other must disappear...

...Switzerland, Scandinavia and the Netherlands, thoroughly democratic, all had enjoyed the advantages of neutrality during World War I. France, which was a "victor" in that war, saw its currency break down and its democratic machinery founder in crisis...

...Then we told the world that we would consider "massive retaliation," that is, we would risk a Third World War with all the new weapons which have come into existence since the last one...

...Thus freed from heedless and irresponsible pressures, our State Department could concentrate on the collection and evaluation of all the facts needed for a realistic appraisal of our possibilities...

...we cannot expect that our home-made foreign policy will automatically become the policy of the Atlantic Community...

...Therefore, it is not because of a "Communist trade offensive" but for reasons of sheer economic necessity that England and Western Europe seek trade with the Soviet bloc...

...Thus, while Communist propaganda and envy can never be completely eliminated, they are not of themselves major causes of the present frictions...

...economic policy...

...most of the remaining 99 per cent was with England and Western Europe...

...To achieve such consent, we must analyze without prejudice the causes of the trans-Atlantic estrangement...

...Rightly or wrongly, Europeans believe that a tolerable settlement in Indo-China could be achieved if our policy were more flexible...

...Britain, of course, must consider the attitude of the Asian members of the Commonwealth...

...Is it not understandable that they are in favor of any bearable agreement with the Communists which would at least postpone the threat of their annihilation...

...Unquestionably Germany...

...But, even if all economic boundaries were cleared away, Western Europe could neither feed herself nor provide the raw materials for her industrial plant...

...What are the major rational objections which Europeans have toward American policy...

...Our allies' foreign-trade problems, however, are too large to be solved solely by increased exports to the United States...

...There is another aspect to European history which Americans overlook...

...What will happen to Europe if the present mild recession in America, or another such recession in the future, should deepen into a full-scale depression...

...If European trade with the Soviet bloc is intensified, and if at the same time we stick to our tariffs, we are sponsoring the development of a worldwide non-dollar trade area...

...the Communist seizure of power in Russia removed almost half of the continent from the area in which there was free movement of men, goods and ideas...

...It is constantly abused by extremist demagogues, editors and columnists, who indoctrinate our population with the belief that the achievement of anything less than 100 per cent of our aims is a shameful defeat...

...Although our export trade represents only a fraction of our national production, we still consider it a major item in our economic policy...

...We have told the world how one hydrogen bomb could destroy an entire city...

...Very little thought, it seems to me, has been given to this problem...

...Russian soldiers have not been in Western Europe for a century and a half, but there are still Frenchmen during whose lifetimes the Germans invaded their country three times...

...A great deal could be accomplished if private American capital, with the aid of tax advantages and guarantees by the European governments for the transfer of interest and amortization, as well as U.S...

...cities may be protected, for these people understand enough geography to know that they are doomed if an atomic war breaks out...

...If she does not find the necessary markets in the dollar area, she must find them elsewhere...

...For some time, we were urging France to (1) renounce practically all her rights in Indo-China, and (2) continue to bear the brunt of the war there, despite its cost to France's position in Europe...

...I suggest that the first area of possible improvement is in the procedures which determine that policy...