Let's Abolish America
MEYER, PETER
Let's Abolish America By Peter Meyer. A satire on a satire Let's abolish America, the woman said. Our allies have kindly consented to defend their countries with U.S. economic and military help,...
...But this proves that they do not understand the workings of democracy...
...Or, rather, let us keep it on ice until we speak of Franco, Peron or Chiang Kai-shek...
...Well, weren't the French right...
...It is rather sad, I grant you, but isn't it better to speak of trade...
...That means, mind you, that our allies have the right and duty to criticize the demagogue McCarthy...
...As I told you, he made the compromise with Mao Tse-tung only in order to get EDC through the French Parliament...
...Who ever heard of closing the barn when the horse was still there...
...And why all these criticisms of Mendes-France...
...Why, they even think it is more important to unite Western Europe against the so-called Communist menace than to unify East and West Germany under Pastor Niemoeller and Walter Ulbricht...
...And didn't he say clearly: The treaty is lousy, but it is up to you to decide whether you want it...
...After all, we have to coexist...
...Being an upright man, he took no position on the question...
...The man returned from a jail in Red China and said: "I would rather return to my Chinese Communist prison cell than avail myself of Senator McCarthy's 'protection.' His is as great, if not a greater, threat to American freedom than the military might of the Kremlin...
...Red China is a fact, so let us stop this sentimental moralizing...
...Don't tell me that he could have had the treaty ratified if he had posed the question of confidence and threatened new elections...
...When the Chinese volunteers swarmed down to help their Korean brothers, the Americans threatened to bomb Manchu-rian railways in neutral Red China...
...And a few righteous cannot save this hysterical Sodom...
...But let's not fool ourselves...
...Then we can peacefully coexist??like Czechoslovakia...
...When the French were so ready to lose Indo-China and open the door to Southeast Asia to introduce peaceful coexistence there, who came to give them military help and advise them to grant independence to the three Indo-Chinese states but protect them against Chinese conquest...
...They think they have the right to criticize everything and everybody...
...After all, don't forget, an alliance means cooperation between equals...
...economic and military help, and the Americans still act so high and mighty...
...These hysterical Americans even deny what every judicious man in Western Europe knows for sure??that this year's bad weather was caused by atomic explosions...
...Attlee's intervention in Washington, they might have won the Korean War, and wouldn't that be a provocation...
...Attlee and Bevan go to Red China to establish communication, and the Americans keep talking about the 10 million Chinese whom the incorruptible Chinese Government has exterminated...
...Why, new elections would have wiped out the Gaullists...
...Those Americans??they read the polls showing that EDC had more adherents among the people than in the Parliament and they jumped to conclusions...
...Being a clever tactician, he took the supporters as well as the adversaries of EDC into his cabinet...
...The great Nehru is running democracy for 400 million people, and they keep asking where he is running...
...but it is kind of unkind, you will admit, to criticize the demagogue Bevan??not that I agree with him, but you have to respect British sensibilities...
...Only a small progressive minority of Americans prefer the security of a Communist jail to the American fascist jungle...
...He just wanted to secure peace in our time...
...Also, don't forget that the Republican party is appeasing McCarthy, while the British Labor party just makes the necessary concessions to Bevan...
...If it were not for Mr...
...Aren't they crazy...
...But the French told them: No sirree, money we'll take if you insist, but no strings attached...
...Of course, those hysterical Americans again...
...And, of course, the pro-EDC leadership of the Socialist party would have got a Parliamentary faction obeying party discipline, so there might have been a solid pro-EDC majority in the French Parliament??but where, then, would there be room for Mendes's clever maneuvering...
...No, not the Russian ones, of course, but those made by the U.S...
...Take this Catholic missionary whom Anatole Shub quoted with approval the other day...
...And if we surrender Indo-China in installments, it is only in order to cope better with EDC in Europe...
...Fortunately, there are some calm, reasonable Americans, too...
...Don't you know that Attlee went to Peking only to show the Scarborough convention that Bevan is not the only friend of peace and Red China...
...And wasn't it a fantastic idea of Dulles to have the SEATO treaty signed before half Indo-China was lost...
...If you want to avoid a world war, let the beast eat until it bursts, Neville Chamberlain used to say??and he was no Red, either...
...who had lost heavily in every recent by-election, and wouldn't that be a terrible loss for French democracy...
...So perhaps we should abolish America...
...When the North Koreans attacked the reactionary Syngman Rhee regime, the Yankees sent soldiers and tanks to protect it from disaster...
Vol. 37 • October 1954 • No. 41
